refugiarvsrefúgioWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: refugiar is a verb, refúgio is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“refugiar” is a verb and “refúgio” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,013
“refugiar” frequency rank
#6,933
“refúgio” frequency rank
40946
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature refugiar refúgio
Definition tomar refúgio lugar para onde alguém se retira para evitar um perigo

Letter map: refugiar vs refúgio

Shared letters muted; letters that set refugiar and refúgio apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

8 ch
refugiar
7 ch
refúgio

Part-of-speech tell for refugiar / refúgio

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: refugiar is averb and refúgioanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40946, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

refugiar is recorded at frequency rank #34,013, classified as averb. refúgio is at rank #6,933, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ʀɨ.ˈfu.ʒju/.

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 40946, this pair ranks #25,075 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of refugiar vs refúgio

Shared letters: efgir. Private to "refugiar": au. Private to "refúgio": .

"refugiar" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC  ·  "refúgio" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • refugiarerfugiar · reffugiar · refguiar · refugair · refuggiar · refugiarr · refugira · refuigar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "refugiar" for "refúgio" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "refugiar" is a verb and "refúgio" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "refugiar" vs "refúgio" - which ranks higher?
"refúgio" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,933 in our Portuguese list, against #34,013 for "refugiar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "refugiar" and "refúgio".

  • Full dictionary entry for "refugiar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "refúgio" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #25,075 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "refugiar" and "refúgio" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "refugiar vs repudiar". 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 #25,075 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