pisarvspulsarWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#11,125
“pisar” frequency rank
#31,930
“pulsar” frequency rank
43055
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pisar pulsar
Definition colocar os pés sobre impelir

Where the eye mixes pisar and pulsar

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

5 ch
pisar
6 ch
pulsar

Look-alike desk: pisar vs pulsar

A purely visual mix-up. pisar (/pi.ˈzaɾ/) 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43055, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pisar is recorded at frequency rank #11,125, classified as averb, pronounced /pi.ˈzaɾ/. 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 43055, this pair ranks #22,627 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pisar vs pulsar

Shared letters: aprs. Private to "pisar": i. Private to "pulsar": lu.

"pisar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "pulsar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pisar ← ipsar · piasr · pisarr · pisra · pissar · ppisar · psiar
  • pulsar ← plusar · ppulsar · pulasr · pullsar · pulsarr · pulsra · pulssar · puslar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pisar" for "pulsar" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/pi.ˈzaɾ/ versus /puɫ.ˈsaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pisar" vs "pulsar" - which ranks higher?
"pisar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,125 in our Portuguese list, against #31,930 for "pulsar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pisar" 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 #22,627 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pisar" 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 #22,627 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