gelarvsgolaWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: gelar is a verb, gola is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“gelar” is a verb and “gola” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,171
“gelar” frequency rank
#24,999
“gola” frequency rank
64170
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gelar gola
Definition passar do estado líquido para sólido por perda de calor o mesmo que ngola

Where the eye mixes gelar and gola

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. gelar runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against gola's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
gelar
4 ch
gola

Look-alike desk: gelar vs gola

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gelar is /ʒɨ.ˈlaɾ/ while gola is /ˈɡɔ.lɐ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64170, 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/. gola is at rank #24,999, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈɡɔ.lɐ/.

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 64170, this pair ranks #5,887 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of gelar vs gola

Shared letters: agl. Private to "gelar": er. Private to "gola": o.

"gelar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "gola" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gelar ← eglar · gealr · gelarr · gellar · gelra · ggelar · glear
  • gola ← ggola · gloa · goal · golla · ogla

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gelar" for "gola" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gelar" is a verb and "gola" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "gelar" or "gola"?
"gola" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,999 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.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "gelar" and "gola" 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 "gola" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,887 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gelar" and "gola" 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 #5,887 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