Which to use
“natação” and “negação” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,805
- “natação” frequency rank
- #9,728
- “negação” frequency rank
- 17533
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | natação | negação |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | ato de deslocar-se sobre a água (nadar), como diversas espécies de animais | ato ou efeito de negar |
Where the eye mixes natação and negação
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. natação and negação follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: natação vs negação
A purely visual mix-up. natação (/nɐ.tɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) and negação (/nɨ.ɡɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17533, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
natação is recorded at frequency rank #7,805, classified as anoun, pronounced /nɐ.tɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/. negação is at rank #9,728, tagged as anoun, pronounced /nɨ.ɡɐ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/.
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 17533, this pair ranks #53,692 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of natação vs negação
Shared letters: anoãç. Private to "natação": t. Private to "negação": eg.
"natação" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV · "negação" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "natação" for "negação" ever safe?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "natação" or "negação" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "natação" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "negação" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #53,692 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "natação" and "negação" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "negação vs negrão". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #53,692 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.