odiarvsolharWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#8,367
“odiar” frequency rank
#703
“olhar” frequency rank
9070
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature odiar olhar
Definition ter ódio a ação de olhar

Where the eye mixes odiar and olhar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
odiar
5 ch
olhar

Why the eye confuses odiar with olhar

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: odiar is /u.ˈdjaɾ/ while olhar is /ɔ.ˈʎaɾ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9070, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

odiar is recorded at frequency rank #8,367, classified as averb, pronounced /u.ˈdjaɾ/. olhar is at rank #703, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɔ.ˈʎaɾ/.

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 9070, this pair ranks #64,487 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of odiar vs olhar

Shared letters: aor. Private to "odiar": di. Private to "olhar": hl.

"odiar" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC  ·  "olhar" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • odiardoiar · odair · oddiar · odiarr · odira · oidar
  • olharlohar · ohlar · olahr · olharr · olhhar · olhra · ollhar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "odiar" for "olhar" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "odiar" is a verb and "olhar" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "odiar" vs "olhar" - which ranks higher?
"olhar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #703 in our Portuguese list, against #8,367 for "odiar". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "odiar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "olhar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #64,487 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "odiar" and "olhar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "oda vs odiar". 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 #64,487 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