mirvsmirarConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#17,334
“mir” frequency rank
#27,178
“mirar” frequency rank
44512
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mir mirar
Definition milho olhar para algo

Letter map: mir vs mirar

Shared letters muted; letters that set mir and mirar apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. mir runs 3 letters (CVC) against mirar's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
mir
5 ch
mirar

Part-of-speech tell for mir / mirar

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mir is anoun and miraraverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “mir” sits inside “mirar”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44512, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mir is recorded at frequency rank #17,334, classified as anoun. mirar is at rank #27,178, tagged as averb, pronounced /mi.ˈɾaɾ/.

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 44512, this pair ranks #20,959 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mir vs mirar

Shared letters: imr. Private to "mir": -. Private to "mirar": a.

"mir" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "mirar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mirar ← imrar · miarr · mirarr · mirrar · mmirar · mriar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mir" for "mirar" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mir" is a noun and "mirar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "mir" vs "mirar" - which ranks higher?
"mir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,334 in our Portuguese list, against #27,178 for "mirar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "mir" vs "mirar" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mirar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #20,959 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mir" and "mirar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mirar vs mirra". 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 #20,959 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