vacilarvsvacinaTell them apart

Quick tell: vacilar is a verb, vacina is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“vacilar” is a verb and “vacina” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,377
“vacilar” frequency rank
#6,484
“vacina” frequency rank
46861
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vacilar vacina
Definition balançar, cambalear, oscilar, tremer preparação usada como inoculação preventiva para dar imunidade contra uma doença específica e que usualmente emprega uma forma enfraquecida do agente patogênico

Letter map: vacilar vs vacina

Shared letters muted; letters that set vacilar and vacina apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. vacilar runs 7 letters (CVCVCVC) against vacina's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
vacilar
6 ch
vacina

Grammar separator: vacilar vs vacina

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: vacilar is averb and vacinaanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46861, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vacilar is recorded at frequency rank #40,377, classified as averb, pronounced /vɐ.si.ˈlaɾ/. vacina is at rank #6,484, 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 46861, this pair ranks #18,442 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of vacilar vs vacina

Shared letters: aciv. Private to "vacilar": lr. Private to "vacina": n.

"vacilar" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "vacina" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vacilar ← avcilar · vaccilar · vacialr · vacilarr · vacillar · vacilra · vacliar · vaiclar
  • vacina ← avcina · vaccina · vacian · vacinna · vacnia · vaicna · vcaina · vvacina

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vacilar" for "vacina" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vacilar" is a verb and "vacina" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "vacilar" or "vacina" show up more?
"vacina" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,484 in our Portuguese list, against #40,377 for "vacilar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "vacilar" and "vacina". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vacilar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vacina" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #18,442 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vacilar" and "vacina" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vacilar vs vacinar". 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 #18,442 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