mijarvsmimarTell them apart

Which to use

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

#16,342
“mijar” frequency rank
#37,916
“mimar” frequency rank
54258
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mijar mimar
Definition urinar dar mimo a; tratar com mimo

Where the eye mixes mijar and mimar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. mijar and mimar follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
mijar
5 ch
mimar

Why the eye confuses mijar with mimar

A purely visual mix-up. mijar (/mi.ˈʒaɾ/) and mimar (/mi.ˈmaɾ/) 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 - j in “mijar” becomes m in “mimar”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54258, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mijar is recorded at frequency rank #16,342, classified as averb, pronounced /mi.ˈʒaɾ/. mimar is at rank #37,916, tagged as averb, pronounced /mi.ˈmaɾ/.

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 54258, this pair ranks #11,400 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mijar vs mimar

Shared letters: aimr. Private to "mijar": j. Private to "mimar": -.

"mijar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "mimar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mijar ← imjar · miajr · mijarr · mijjar · mijra · mjiar · mmijar
  • mimar ← immar · miamr · mimarr · mimmar · mimra · mmiar · mmimar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mijar" and "mimar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/mi.ˈʒaɾ/ versus /mi.ˈmaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mijar" or "mimar"?
"mijar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,342 in our Portuguese list, against #37,916 for "mimar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mijar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mimar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #11,400 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mijar" and "mimar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Micah vs mimar". 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 #11,400 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