pilarvsplayWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#8,938
“pilar” frequency rank
#3,929
“play” frequency rank
12867
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pilar play
Definition coluna de sustentação de edifício ou estrutura; esteio, escora, suporte botão que aciona a reprodução de mídia

Letter map: pilar vs play

Shared letters muted; letters that set pilar and play apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
pilar
4 ch
play

Pair insight - pilar / play

pilar and play are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12867, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pilar is recorded at frequency rank #8,938, classified as anoun, pronounced /pi.ˈlaɾ/. play is at rank #3,929, tagged as anoun.

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 12867, this pair ranks #59,602 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pilar vs play

Shared letters: alp. Private to "pilar": ir. Private to "play": y.

"pilar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "play" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pilariplar · pialr · pilarr · pillar · pilra · pliar · ppilar
  • playlpay · paly · playy · pllay · plya · pplay

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pilar" for "play" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "pilar" vs "play" - which ranks higher?
"play" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,929 in our Portuguese list, against #8,938 for "pilar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "pilar" vs "play" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pilar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "play" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #59,602 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pilar" and "play" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pilão vs pilar". 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 #59,602 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