excitarvsexercitarWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#40,124
“excitar” frequency rank
#18,058
“exercitar” frequency rank
58182
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature excitar exercitar
Definition provocar excitação em praticar

Where the eye mixes excitar and exercitar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

7 ch
excitar
9 ch
exercitar

Look-alike desk: excitar vs exercitar

A purely visual mix-up. excitar (/ɐjʃ.si.ˈtaɾ/) and exercitar (/i.zɨɾ.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 differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58182, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

excitar is recorded at frequency rank #40,124, classified as averb, pronounced /ɐjʃ.si.ˈtaɾ/. exercitar is at rank #18,058, tagged as averb, pronounced /i.zɨɾ.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 58182, this pair ranks #8,893 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of excitar vs exercitar

Shared letters: aceirtx. Private to "excitar": -. Private to "exercitar": -.

"excitar" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC  ·  "exercitar" · 9 letters · shape VCVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • excitarecxitar · exccitar · exciatr · excitarr · excitra · excittar · exctiar · exictar
  • exercitareexrcitar · execritar · exerccitar · exerciatr · exercitarr · exercitra · exercittar · exerctiar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "excitar" and "exercitar" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ɐjʃ.si.ˈtaɾ/ versus /i.zɨɾ.si.ˈtaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "excitar" or "exercitar"?
"exercitar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,058 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.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "excitar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "exercitar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #8,893 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "excitar" and "exercitar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "exaltar 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 #8,893 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