seçãovsselarWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#2,496
“seção” frequency rank
#26,893
“selar” frequency rank
29389
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature seção selar
Definition subdivisão de um capítulo, obra, tratado ou estudo pôr sela (em cavalo, por exemplo)

Letter map: seção vs selar

Shared letters muted; letters that set seção and selar apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. seção (CVCVV) and selar (CVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
seção
5 ch
selar

Role in the sentence - seção and selar

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: seção is anoun and selaraverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29389, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

seção is recorded at frequency rank #2,496, classified as anoun. selar is at rank #26,893, tagged as averb, pronounced /sɨ.ˈlaɾ/.

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 29389, this pair ranks #39,263 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of seção vs selar

Shared letters: es. Private to "seção": oãç. Private to "selar": alr.

"seção" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "selar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • selar ← eslar · sealr · selarr · sellar · selra · slear · sselar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "seção" and "selar" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "seção" is a noun and "selar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "seção" or "selar"?
"seção" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,496 in our Portuguese list, against #26,893 for "selar". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pair "seção" vs "selar" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "seção" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "selar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #39,263 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "seção" and "selar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "selar vs selim". 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 #39,263 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