starvsstartWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#3,645
“star” frequency rank
#12,562
“start” frequency rank
16207
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature star start
Definition estrela ver estarte

Letter map: star vs start

Shared letters muted; letters that set star and start apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

4 ch
star
5 ch
start

Pair insight - star / start

star and start are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “star” sits inside “start”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16207, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

star is recorded at frequency rank #3,645, classified as anoun, pronounced /stɑ:ʳ/ ouvir^(fonte ?). start is at rank #12,562, tagged as anoun.

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 16207, this pair ranks #55,410 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of star vs start

Shared letters: arst. Private to "star": -. Private to "start": -.

"star" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "start" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • starsatr · sstar · starr · stra · sttar · tsar
  • startsatrt · sstart · starrt · startt · statr · strat · sttart · tsart

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "star" and "start" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “star” sits inside “start”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "star" or "start" show up more?
"star" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,645 in our Portuguese list, against #12,562 for "start". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "star" and "start".

  • Full dictionary entry for "star" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "start" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #55,410 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "star" and "start" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "soap vs star". 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 #55,410 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