secarvssujarTell them apart

Which to use

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

#8,684
“secar” frequency rank
#17,647
“sujar” frequency rank
26331
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature secar sujar
Definition fazer evaporar a umidade de tornar sujo, especialmente na superfície

Where the eye mixes secar and sujar

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

5 ch
secar
5 ch
sujar

Why the eye confuses secar with sujar

A purely visual mix-up. secar (/sɨ.ˈkaɾ/) and sujar (/su.ˈʒaɾ/) 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 26331, 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/. sujar is at rank #17,647, tagged as averb, pronounced /su.ˈʒaɾ/.

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 26331, this pair ranks #42,860 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of secar vs sujar

Shared letters: ars. Private to "secar": ce. Private to "sujar": ju.

"secar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "sujar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • secarescar · scear · seacr · secarr · seccar · secra · ssecar
  • sujarsjuar · ssujar · suajr · sujarr · sujjar · sujra · usjar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "secar" and "sujar" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/sɨ.ˈkaɾ/ versus /su.ˈʒaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "secar" or "sujar"?
"secar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,684 in our Portuguese list, against #17,647 for "sujar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "secar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sujar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #42,860 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "secar" and "sujar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sudan vs sujar". 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 #42,860 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