exaltado vs excitado, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“exaltado” and “excitado” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#30,146
“exaltado” frequency rank: #24,319
“excitado” frequency rank: 54465
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	exaltado	excitado
Definition	ferrenho	que se excitou, que sofreu excitação

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set exaltado and excitado apart are highlighted. They share 6 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

8 ch

exaltado

8 ch

excitado

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. exaltado (/i.za.lˈta.du/) and excitado (/ɐjʃ.si.ˈta.du/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54465, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

exaltado is recorded at frequency rank #30,146, classified as anadj, pronounced /i.za.lˈta.du/. excitado is at rank #24,319, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ɐjʃ.si.ˈta.du/.

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 54465, this pair ranks #11,237 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of exaltado vs excitado

Shared letters: adeotx. Private to "exaltado": l. Private to "excitado": ci.

"exaltado" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVCV · "excitado" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

exaltado ← eaxltado · exalatdo · exalltado · exaltaddo · exaltaod · exaltdao · exalttado · exatlado
excitado ← ecxitado · exccitado · exciatdo · excitaddo · excitaod · excitdao · excittado · exctiado

Frequency comparison

exaltado#30,146

excitado#24,319

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "exaltado" and "excitado" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (/i.za.lˈta.du/ versus /ɐjʃ.si.ˈta.du/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "exaltado" or "excitado"?

"excitado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,319 in our Portuguese list, against #30,146 for "exaltado". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering exaltado vs excitado

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “exaltado” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable