pirarvsprivarTell them apart

Which to use

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

#24,423
“pirar” frequency rank
#27,982
“privar” frequency rank
52405
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pirar privar
Definition endoidar tirar a propriedade de

Where the eye mixes pirar and privar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pirar runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against privar's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
pirar
6 ch
privar

Why the eye confuses pirar with privar

A purely visual mix-up. pirar (/pi.ˈɾaɾ/) and privar (/pɾi.ˈvaɾ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52405, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pirar is recorded at frequency rank #24,423, classified as averb, pronounced /pi.ˈɾaɾ/. privar is at rank #27,982, tagged as averb, pronounced /pɾi.ˈvaɾ/.

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 52405, this pair ranks #12,784 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pirar vs privar

Shared letters: aipr. Private to "pirar": -. Private to "privar": v.

"pirar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "privar" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pirar ← iprar · piarr · pirarr · pirrar · ppirar · priar
  • privar ← pirvar · pprivar · priavr · privarr · privra · privvar · prrivar · prviar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pirar" for "privar" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/pi.ˈɾaɾ/ versus /pɾi.ˈvaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pirar" or "privar"?
"pirar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,423 in our Portuguese list, against #27,982 for "privar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "pirar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "privar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #12,784 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pirar" and "privar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pilão vs pirar". 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 #12,784 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