exaltarvsexcitarTell them apart

Which to use

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

#26,013
“exaltar” frequency rank
#40,124
“excitar” frequency rank
66137
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature exaltar excitar
Definition elevar muito provocar excitação em

Where the eye mixes exaltar and excitar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. exaltar (VCVCCVC) and excitar (VCCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
exaltar
7 ch
excitar

Why the eye confuses exaltar with excitar

A purely visual mix-up. exaltar (/i.zaɫ.ˈtaɾ/) and excitar (/ɐjʃ.si.ˈtaɾ/) 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 66137, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

exaltar is recorded at frequency rank #26,013, classified as averb, pronounced /i.zaɫ.ˈtaɾ/. excitar is at rank #40,124, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐjʃ.si.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 66137, this pair ranks #5,094 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of exaltar vs excitar

Shared letters: aertx. Private to "exaltar": l. Private to "excitar": ci.

"exaltar" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC  ·  "excitar" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • exaltar ← eaxltar · exalatr · exalltar · exaltarr · exaltra · exalttar · exatlar · exlatar
  • excitar ← ecxitar · exccitar · exciatr · excitarr · excitra · excittar · exctiar · exictar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "exaltar" and "excitar" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/i.zaɫ.ˈtaɾ/ versus /ɐjʃ.si.ˈtaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "exaltar" or "excitar"?
"exaltar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,013 in our Portuguese list, against #40,124 for "excitar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "exaltar" and "excitar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "exaltar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "excitar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,094 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "exaltar" and "excitar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "excitado vs excitar". 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 #5,094 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