isençãovsisentarTell them apart

Quick tell: isenção is a noun, isentar is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“isenção” is a noun and “isentar” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,469
“isenção” frequency rank
#45,413
“isentar” frequency rank
57882
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature isenção isentar
Definition que isenta tornar(-se) isento, desobrigado, dispensado, livre de; eximir(-se)

Letter map: isenção vs isentar

Shared letters muted; letters that set isenção and isentar apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. isenção (VCVCCVV) and isentar (VCVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
isenção
7 ch
isentar

Grammar separator: isenção vs isentar

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: isenção is anoun and isentaraverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57882, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

isenção is recorded at frequency rank #12,469, classified as anoun, pronounced /i.zẽ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/. isentar is at rank #45,413, tagged as averb.

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 57882, this pair ranks #9,077 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of isenção vs isentar

Shared letters: eins. Private to "isenção": oãç. Private to "isentar": art.

"isenção" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVV  ·  "isentar" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • isentar ← iesntar · isenatr · isenntar · isentarr · isentra · isenttar · isetnar · isnetar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "isenção" for "isentar" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "isenção" is a noun and "isentar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "isenção" or "isentar" show up more?
"isenção" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,469 in our Portuguese list, against #45,413 for "isentar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "isenção" and "isentar".

  • Full dictionary entry for "isenção" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "isentar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #9,077 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "isenção" and "isentar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "isentar vs isento". 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 #9,077 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