examevsêxtaseWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#3,074
“exame” frequency rank
#19,033
“êxtase” frequency rank
22107
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature exame êxtase
Definition o ato de examinar estado, causado em geral por alegria, prática religiosa, ou outra emoção forte, em que o indivíduo se sente transportado para fora de si próprio, elevado a realidades que ultrapassam o sensível

Where the eye mixes exame and êxtase

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. exame runs 5 letters (VCVCV) against êxtase's 6 (VCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
exame
6 ch
êxtase

Why the eye confuses exame with êxtase

A purely visual mix-up. exame (/i.ˈzɐ.mɨ/) and êxtase (/ˈɐjʃ.tɐ.zɨ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22107, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

exame is recorded at frequency rank #3,074, classified as anoun, pronounced /i.ˈzɐ.mɨ/. êxtase is at rank #19,033, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɐjʃ.tɐ.zɨ/.

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 22107, this pair ranks #48,020 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of exame vs êxtase

Shared letters: aex. Private to "exame": m. Private to "êxtase": stê.

"exame" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "êxtase" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • exame ← eaxme · exaem · examme · exmae · exxame · xeame

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "exame" and "êxtase" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/i.ˈzɐ.mɨ/ versus /ˈɐjʃ.tɐ.zɨ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "exame" or "êxtase" show up more?
"exame" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,074 in our Portuguese list, against #19,033 for "êxtase". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "exame" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "êxtase" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #48,020 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "exame" and "êxtase" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "excuse vs êxtase". 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 #48,020 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