Which to use
“vagar” is a noun and “vazar” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #32,014
- “vagar” frequency rank
- #15,707
- “vazar” frequency rank
- 47721
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | vagar | vazar |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | falta de pressa | tornar vazio |
Where the eye mixes vagar and vazar
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. vagar and vazar follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between vagar and vazar
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vagar is /vɐ.ˈɡaɾ/ while vazar is /vɐ.ˈzaɾ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - g in “vagar” becomes z in “vazar”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47721, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
vagar is recorded at frequency rank #32,014, classified as anoun, pronounced /vɐ.ˈɡaɾ/. vazar is at rank #15,707, tagged as averb, pronounced /vɐ.ˈzaɾ/.
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 47721, this pair ranks #17,511 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of vagar vs vazar
Shared letters: arv. Private to "vagar": g. Private to "vazar": z.
"vagar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "vazar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "vagar" and "vazar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "vagar" or "vazar" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "vagar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "vazar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #17,511 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "vagar" and "vazar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vagar vs velar". 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 #17,511 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.