secarvssuarTell them apart

Which to use

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

#8,684
“secar” frequency rank
#22,808
“suar” frequency rank
31492
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature secar suar
Definition fazer evaporar a umidade de transpirar, emitir suor pelos poros da pele

Where the eye mixes secar and suar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
secar
4 ch
suar

Visual trap between secar and suar

A purely visual mix-up. secar (/sɨ.ˈkaɾ/) and suar (/ˈswaɾ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31492, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

secar is recorded at frequency rank #8,684, classified as averb, pronounced /sɨ.ˈkaɾ/. suar is at rank #22,808, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈswaɾ/.

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 31492, this pair ranks #36,559 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of secar vs suar

Shared letters: ars. Private to "secar": ce. Private to "suar": u.

"secar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "suar" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • secarescar · scear · seacr · secarr · seccar · secra · ssecar
  • suarsaur · ssuar · suarr

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "secar" and "suar" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/sɨ.ˈkaɾ/ versus /ˈswaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "secar" or "suar"?
"secar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,684 in our Portuguese list, against #22,808 for "suar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "secar" and "suar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "secar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "suar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #36,559 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "secar" and "suar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "soap vs suar". 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 #36,559 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