recitarvsrefutarWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#36,193
“recitar” frequency rank
#31,945
“refutar” frequency rank
68138
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature recitar refutar
Definition dizer em voz alta e clara, lendo ou não combater com argumentos que provam o contrário

Where the eye mixes recitar and refutar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
recitar
7 ch
refutar

Look-alike desk: recitar vs refutar

A purely visual mix-up. recitar (/Rɨ.si.ˈtaɾ/) and refutar (/Rɨ.fu.ˈtaɾ/) 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 68138, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

recitar is recorded at frequency rank #36,193, classified as averb, pronounced /Rɨ.si.ˈtaɾ/. refutar is at rank #31,945, tagged as averb, pronounced /Rɨ.fu.ˈtaɾ/.

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 68138, this pair ranks #4,384 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of recitar vs refutar

Shared letters: aert. Private to "recitar": ci. Private to "refutar": fu.

"recitar" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "refutar" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • recitarercitar · rceitar · reccitar · reciatr · recitarr · recitra · recittar · rectiar
  • refutarerfutar · reffutar · reftuar · refuatr · refutarr · refutra · refuttar · reuftar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "recitar" for "refutar" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/Rɨ.si.ˈtaɾ/ versus /Rɨ.fu.ˈtaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "recitar" or "refutar" show up more?
"refutar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,945 in our Portuguese list, against #36,193 for "recitar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "recitar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "refutar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #4,384 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "recitar" and "refutar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recitar vs refinar". 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 #4,384 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