passar vs pulsar, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#380
“passar” frequency rank: #31,930
“pulsar” frequency rank: 32310
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	passar	pulsar
Definition	percorrer, atravessar	impelir

Where the eye mixes passar and pulsar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch

passar

6 ch

pulsar

Look-alike desk: passar vs pulsar

A purely visual mix-up. passar (/pɐ.ˈsaɾ/) and pulsar (/puɫ.ˈsaɾ/) 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 32310, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

passar is recorded at frequency rank #380, classified as averb, pronounced /pɐ.ˈsaɾ/. pulsar is at rank #31,930, tagged as averb, pronounced /puɫ.ˈsaɾ/.

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 32310, this pair ranks #35,528 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of passar vs pulsar

Shared letters: aprs. Private to "passar": -. Private to "pulsar": lu.

"passar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "pulsar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

passar ← apssar · pasar · pasasr · passarr · passra · ppassar · psasar
pulsar ← plusar · ppulsar · pulasr · pullsar · pulsarr · pulsra · pulssar · puslar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "passar" and "pulsar" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (/pɐ.ˈsaɾ/ versus /puɫ.ˈsaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "passar" or "pulsar" show up more?

"passar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #380 in our Portuguese list, against #31,930 for "pulsar". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "passar" and "pulsar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

Full dictionary entry for "passar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "pulsar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #35,528 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"passar" and "pulsar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pulga vs pulsar". 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 #35,528 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.