vagarvsvingarWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#32,014
“vagar” frequency rank
#9,422
“vingar” frequency rank
41436
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vagar vingar
Definition falta de pressa tomar satisfação de alguém; realizar uma vingança:

Where the eye mixes vagar and vingar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. vagar runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against vingar's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
vagar
6 ch
vingar

Why the eye confuses vagar with vingar

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vagar is /vɐ.ˈɡaɾ/ while vingar is /vĩ.ˈɡaɾ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41436, 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/. vingar is at rank #9,422, tagged as averb, pronounced /vĩ.ˈɡaɾ/.

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 41436, this pair ranks #24,482 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vagar vs vingar

Shared letters: agrv. Private to "vagar": -. Private to "vingar": in.

"vagar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "vingar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vagar ← avgar · vaagr · vagarr · vaggar · vagra · vgaar · vvagar
  • vingar ← ivngar · vignar · vinagr · vingarr · vinggar · vingra · vinngar · vnigar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "vagar" and "vingar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vagar" is a noun and "vingar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "vagar" or "vingar" show up more?
"vingar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,422 in our Portuguese list, against #32,014 for "vagar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "vagar" and "vingar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vagar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vingar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #24,482 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vagar" and "vingar" 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 #24,482 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