regarvsregiãoWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#27,639
“regar” frequency rank
#289
“região” frequency rank
27928
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature regar região
Definition molhar as plantas, terra, etc território, área

Where the eye mixes regar and região

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. regar runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against região's 6 (CVCVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
regar
6 ch
região

Why the eye confuses regar with região

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: regar is /Rɨ.ˈɡaɾ/ while região is /ʁe.ʒi.ˈãw/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27928, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

regar is recorded at frequency rank #27,639, classified as averb, pronounced /Rɨ.ˈɡaɾ/. região is at rank #289, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ʁe.ʒi.ˈãw/.

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 27928, this pair ranks #40,984 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of regar vs região

Shared letters: egr. Private to "regar": a. Private to "região": ioã.

"regar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "região" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • regar ← ergar · reagr · regarr · reggar · rgear · rregar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "regar" for "região" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "regar" is a verb and "região" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "regar" vs "região" - which ranks higher?
"região" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #289 in our Portuguese list, against #27,639 for "regar". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "regar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "região" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #40,984 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "regar" and "região" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "regar vs renegar". 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 #40,984 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