gelarvsgemerWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#39,171
“gelar” frequency rank
#31,787
“gemer” frequency rank
70958
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gelar gemer
Definition passar do estado líquido para sólido por perda de calor dar gemidos

Where the eye mixes gelar and gemer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. gelar and gemer follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
gelar
5 ch
gemer

Visual trap between gelar and gemer

A purely visual mix-up. gelar (/ʒɨ.ˈlaɾ/) and gemer (/ʒɨ.ˈmeɾ/) 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 70958, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gelar is recorded at frequency rank #39,171, classified as averb, pronounced /ʒɨ.ˈlaɾ/. gemer is at rank #31,787, tagged as averb, pronounced /ʒɨ.ˈmeɾ/.

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 70958, this pair ranks #3,482 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of gelar vs gemer

Shared letters: egr. Private to "gelar": al. Private to "gemer": m.

"gelar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "gemer" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gelar ← eglar · gealr · gelarr · gellar · gelra · ggelar · glear
  • gemer ← egmer · geemr · gemerr · gemmer · gemre · ggemer · gmeer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gelar" for "gemer" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ʒɨ.ˈlaɾ/ versus /ʒɨ.ˈmeɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "gelar" vs "gemer" - which ranks higher?
"gemer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,787 in our Portuguese list, against #39,171 for "gelar". 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 "gelar" and "gemer" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gelar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gemer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #3,482 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gelar" and "gemer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gelar vs ger". 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 #3,482 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