posarvspulsarTell them apart

Which to use

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

#25,442
“posar” frequency rank
#31,930
“pulsar” frequency rank
57372
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature posar pulsar
Definition colocar-se numa determinada posição (para servir de modelo, por exemplo) impelir

Where the eye mixes posar and pulsar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. posar 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
posar
6 ch
pulsar

Why the eye confuses posar with pulsar

A purely visual mix-up. posar (/pu.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 57372, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

posar is recorded at frequency rank #25,442, classified as averb, pronounced /pu.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 57372, this pair ranks #9,391 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of posar vs pulsar

Shared letters: aprs. Private to "posar": o. Private to "pulsar": lu.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • posar ← opsar · poasr · posarr · posra · possar · pposar · psoar
  • pulsar ← plusar · ppulsar · pulasr · pullsar · pulsarr · pulsra · pulssar · puslar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "posar" and "pulsar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/pu.ˈzaɾ/ versus /puɫ.ˈsaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "posar" or "pulsar"?
"posar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,442 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.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "posar" 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 #9,391 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "posar" and "pulsar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pastar vs posar". 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 #9,391 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