renegarvsrenovarTell them apart

Which to use

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

#49,673
“renegar” frequency rank
#9,400
“renovar” frequency rank
59073
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature renegar renovar
Definition abandonar uma religião para seguir outra; descrer tornar novo

Where the eye mixes renegar and renovar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. renegar and renovar follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
renegar
7 ch
renovar

Why the eye confuses renegar with renovar

A purely visual mix-up. renegar (/Rɨ.nɨ.ˈɡaɾ/) and renovar (/Rɨ.nu.ˈvaɾ/) 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 59073, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

renegar is recorded at frequency rank #49,673, classified as averb, pronounced /Rɨ.nɨ.ˈɡaɾ/. renovar is at rank #9,400, tagged as averb, pronounced /Rɨ.nu.ˈvaɾ/.

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 59073, this pair ranks #8,391 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of renegar vs renovar

Shared letters: aenr. Private to "renegar": g. Private to "renovar": ov.

"renegar" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "renovar" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • renegar ← ernegar · reengar · reneagr · renegarr · reneggar · renegra · rengear · rennegar
  • renovar ← ernovar · rennovar · renoavr · renovarr · renovra · renovvar · renvoar · reonvar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "renegar" and "renovar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/Rɨ.nɨ.ˈɡaɾ/ versus /Rɨ.nu.ˈvaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "renegar" or "renovar"?
"renovar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,400 in our Portuguese list, against #49,673 for "renegar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "renegar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "renovar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #8,391 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "renegar" and "renovar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recear 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 #8,391 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