mirarvsmirimTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#27,178
“mirar” frequency rank
#12,289
“mirim” frequency rank
39467
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mirar mirim
Definition olhar para algo destinado a crianças

Letter map: mirar vs mirim

Shared letters muted; letters that set mirar and mirim apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
mirar
5 ch
mirim

Role in the sentence - mirar and mirim

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: mirar is averb and mirimanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39467, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mirar is recorded at frequency rank #27,178, classified as averb, pronounced /mi.ˈɾaɾ/. mirim is at rank #12,289, tagged as anadj.

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 39467, this pair ranks #26,768 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mirar vs mirim

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

"mirar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "mirim" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mirarimrar · miarr · mirarr · mirrar · mmirar · mriar
  • mirimimrim · miirm · mirimm · mirmi · mirrim · mmirim · mriim

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mirar" and "mirim" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mirar" is a verb and "mirim" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "mirar" or "mirim"?
"mirim" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,289 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 "mirar" vs "mirim" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mirar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mirim" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #26,768 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mirar" and "mirim" 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 #26,768 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