selarvssujarWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#26,893
“selar” frequency rank
#17,647
“sujar” frequency rank
44540
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature selar sujar
Definition pôr sela (em cavalo, por exemplo) tornar sujo, especialmente na superfície

Where the eye mixes selar and sujar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. selar and sujar follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
selar
5 ch
sujar

Visual trap between selar and sujar

A purely visual mix-up. selar (/sɨ.ˈlaɾ/) 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 44540, 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/. 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 44540, this pair ranks #20,919 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of selar vs sujar

Shared letters: ars. Private to "selar": el. Private to "sujar": ju.

"selar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "sujar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • selar ← eslar · sealr · selarr · sellar · selra · slear · sselar
  • sujar ← sjuar · ssujar · suajr · sujarr · sujjar · sujra · usjar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "selar" and "sujar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/sɨ.ˈlaɾ/ versus /su.ˈʒaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "selar" or "sujar"?
"sujar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,647 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

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "selar" 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 #20,919 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "selar" and "sujar" 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 #20,919 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