refinarvsrevisarTell them apart

Which to use

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

#48,086
“refinar” frequency rank
#15,915
“revisar” frequency rank
64001
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature refinar revisar
Definition levar ao estado fino, sem misturas ou puro; tirar impuridades; liberar de liga; separar de matéria estranha; purificar ver, examinar novamente

Where the eye mixes refinar and revisar

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

7 ch
refinar
7 ch
revisar

Visual trap between refinar and revisar

A purely visual mix-up. refinar (/Rɨ.fi.ˈnaɾ/) and revisar (/Rɨ.vi.ˈzaɾ/) 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 64001, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

refinar is recorded at frequency rank #48,086, classified as averb, pronounced /Rɨ.fi.ˈnaɾ/. revisar is at rank #15,915, tagged as averb, pronounced /Rɨ.vi.ˈzaɾ/.

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 64001, this pair ranks #5,957 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of refinar vs revisar

Shared letters: aeir. Private to "refinar": fn. Private to "revisar": sv.

"refinar" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "revisar" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • refinarerfinar · reffinar · refianr · refinarr · refinnar · refinra · refniar · reifnar
  • revisarervisar · reivsar · reviasr · revisarr · revisra · revissar · revsiar · revvisar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "refinar" and "revisar" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/Rɨ.fi.ˈnaɾ/ versus /Rɨ.vi.ˈzaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "refinar" or "revisar"?
"revisar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,915 in our Portuguese list, against #48,086 for "refinar". 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 "refinar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "revisar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,957 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "refinar" and "revisar" 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 #5,957 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