devastadovsdevastarTell them apart

Quick tell: devastado is a adjective, devastar is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“devastado” is an adjective and “devastar” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,608
“devastado” frequency rank
#47,300
“devastar” frequency rank
71908
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature devastado devastar
Definition destruído arruinar, assolar

Letter map: devastado vs devastar

Shared letters muted; letters that set devastado and devastar apart highlighted. Shared run: 7.

9 ch
devastado
8 ch
devastar

Role in the sentence - devastado and devastar

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: devastado is anadjective and devastaraverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71908, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

devastado is recorded at frequency rank #24,608, classified as anadj. devastar is at rank #47,300, tagged as averb, pronounced /dɨ.vɐʃ.ˈtaɾ/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 71908, this pair ranks #3,214 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of devastado vs devastar

Shared letters: adestv. Private to "devastado": o. Private to "devastar": r.

"devastado" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCV  ·  "devastar" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • devastadoddevastado · deavstado · devasatdo · devasstado · devastaddo · devastaod · devastdao · devasttado
  • devastarddevastar · deavstar · devasatr · devasstar · devastarr · devastra · devasttar · devatsar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "devastado" for "devastar" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "devastado" is an adjective and "devastar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "devastado" or "devastar" show up more?
"devastado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,608 in our Portuguese list, against #47,300 for "devastar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "devastado" vs "devastar" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "devastado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "devastar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #3,214 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "devastado" and "devastar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "degustar vs devastar". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #3,214 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list