selarvssuarTell them apart

Which to use

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

#26,893
“selar” frequency rank
#22,808
“suar” frequency rank
49701
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature selar suar
Definition pôr sela (em cavalo, por exemplo) transpirar, emitir suor pelos poros da pele

Where the eye mixes selar and suar

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

5 ch
selar
4 ch
suar

Visual trap between selar and suar

A purely visual mix-up. selar (/sɨ.ˈlaɾ/) 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 49701, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

selar is recorded at frequency rank #26,893, classified as averb, pronounced /sɨ.ˈlaɾ/. 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 49701, this pair ranks #15,285 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of selar vs suar

Shared letters: ars. Private to "selar": el. Private to "suar": u.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • selareslar · sealr · selarr · sellar · selra · slear · sselar
  • suarsaur · ssuar · suarr

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "selar" and "suar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/sɨ.ˈlaɾ/ versus /ˈswaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "selar" or "suar"?
"suar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,808 in our Portuguese list, against #26,893 for "selar". 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 "selar" 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 #15,285 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "selar" 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 #15,285 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