gagevsgateConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#40,149
“gage” frequency rank
#20,008
“gate” frequency rank
60157
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gage gate
Definition penhor portão; portal; porteira

Where the eye mixes gage and gate

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
gage
4 ch
gate

Visual trap between gage and gate

A purely visual mix-up. gage (\ɡaʒ\) and gate (/ɡeɪt/) 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 a single letter - g in “gage” becomes t in “gate”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60157, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gage is recorded at frequency rank #40,149, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡaʒ\. gate is at rank #20,008, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɡeɪt/.

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 60157, this pair ranks #7,815 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of gage vs gate

Shared letters: aeg. Private to "gage": -. Private to "gate": t.

"gage" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "gate" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gageagge · gaeg · gagge · ggae · ggage
  • gateagte · gaet · gatte · ggate · gtae

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gage" for "gate" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɡaʒ\ versus /ɡeɪt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "gage" or "gate" show up more?
"gate" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,008 in our Portuguese list, against #40,149 for "gage". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gate" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #7,815 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gage" and "gate" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gage vs giga". 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 #7,815 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