vacilarvsvacinarWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#40,377
“vacilar” frequency rank
#40,378
“vacinar” frequency rank
80755
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vacilar vacinar
Definition balançar, cambalear, oscilar, tremer praticar a vacinação em

Where the eye mixes vacilar and vacinar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
vacilar
7 ch
vacinar

Visual trap between vacilar and vacinar

A purely visual mix-up. vacilar (/vɐ.si.ˈlaɾ/) and vacinar (/vɐ.si.ˈnaɾ/) 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 a single letter - l in “vacilar” becomes n in “vacinar”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80755, 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/. vacinar is at rank #40,378, tagged as averb, pronounced /vɐ.si.ˈnaɾ/.

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 80755, this pair ranks #1,273 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of vacilar vs vacinar

Shared letters: acirv. Private to "vacilar": l. Private to "vacinar": n.

"vacilar" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "vacinar" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vacilaravcilar · vaccilar · vacialr · vacilarr · vacillar · vacilra · vacliar · vaiclar
  • vacinaravcinar · vaccinar · vacianr · vacinarr · vacinnar · vacinra · vacniar · vaicnar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "vacilar" and "vacinar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/vɐ.si.ˈlaɾ/ versus /vɐ.si.ˈnaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "vacilar" vs "vacinar" - which ranks higher?
"vacilar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,377 in our Portuguese list, against #40,378 for "vacinar". 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 "vacilar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vacinar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,273 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vacilar" and "vacinar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vacinar vs vaiar". 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 #1,273 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