sumirvssutilTell them apart

Quick tell: sumir is a verb, sutil is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sumir” is a verb and “sutil” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,746
“sumir” frequency rank
#11,356
“sutil” frequency rank
23102
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sumir sutil
Definition desaparecer, deixar de existir subtil

Letter map: sumir vs sutil

Shared letters muted; letters that set sumir and sutil apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
sumir
5 ch
sutil

Grammar separator: sumir vs sutil

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sumir is averb and sutilanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23102, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sumir is recorded at frequency rank #11,746, classified as averb. sutil is at rank #11,356, tagged as anadj.

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 23102, this pair ranks #46,786 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sumir vs sutil

Shared letters: isu. Private to "sumir": mr. Private to "sutil": lt.

"sumir" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "sutil" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sumirsmuir · ssumir · suimr · sumirr · summir · sumri · usmir
  • sutilssutil · stuil · suitl · sutill · sutli · suttil · ustil

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sumir" and "sutil" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sumir" is a verb and "sutil" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "sumir" or "sutil" show up more?
"sutil" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,356 in our Portuguese list, against #11,746 for "sumir". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "sumir" and "sutil". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sumir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sutil" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #46,786 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sumir" and "sutil" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "soir vs sumir". 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 #46,786 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