miragemvsmixagemWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#29,439
“miragem” frequency rank
#36,553
“mixagem” frequency rank
65992
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature miragem mixagem
Definition efeito da refração e reflexão, frequente nos desertos, que faz ver na atmosfera a imagem mais próxima e invertida de objetos distantes processo pelo qual vários sons são combinados em um ou mais canais

Where the eye mixes miragem and mixagem

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. miragem and mixagem follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
miragem
7 ch
mixagem

Look-alike desk: miragem vs mixagem

A purely visual mix-up. miragem (/mi.ˈɾa.ʒɐ̃j̃/) and mixagem (/miˈksaʒɐ̃j̃/) 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 - r in “miragem” becomes x in “mixagem”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65992, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

miragem is recorded at frequency rank #29,439, classified as anoun, pronounced /mi.ˈɾa.ʒɐ̃j̃/. mixagem is at rank #36,553, tagged as anoun, pronounced /miˈksaʒɐ̃j̃/.

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 65992, this pair ranks #5,152 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of miragem vs mixagem

Shared letters: aegim. Private to "miragem": r. Private to "mixagem": x.

"miragem" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "mixagem" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • miragem ← imragem · miargem · miraegm · miragemm · miraggem · miragme · mirgaem · mirragem
  • mixagem ← imxagem · miaxgem · mixaegm · mixagemm · mixaggem · mixagme · mixgaem · mixxagem

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "miragem" and "mixagem" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/mi.ˈɾa.ʒɐ̃j̃/ versus /miˈksaʒɐ̃j̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "miragem" vs "mixagem" - which ranks higher?
"miragem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,439 in our Portuguese list, against #36,553 for "mixagem". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "miragem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mixagem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,152 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "miragem" and "mixagem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mixagem vs moagem". 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 #5,152 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