viragemvsvirgemWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: viragem is a noun, virgem is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“viragem” is a noun and “virgem” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#26,242
“viragem” frequency rank
#3,241
“virgem” frequency rank
29483
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature viragem virgem
Definition ato de virar diz-se de pessoa que nunca teve relações sexuais, ou animal que nunca acasalou

Letter map: viragem vs virgem

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

7 ch
viragem
6 ch
virgem

Part-of-speech tell for viragem / virgem

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: viragem is anoun and virgemanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29483, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

viragem is recorded at frequency rank #26,242, classified as anoun. virgem is at rank #3,241, 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 29483, this pair ranks #39,136 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of viragem vs virgem

Shared letters: egimrv. Private to "viragem": a. Private to "virgem": -.

"viragem" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "virgem" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • viragem ← ivragem · viargem · viraegm · viragemm · viraggem · viragme · virgaem · virragem
  • virgem ← ivrgem · vigrem · viregm · virgemm · virggem · virgme · virrgem · vrigem

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "viragem" and "virgem" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "viragem" is a noun and "virgem" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "viragem" or "virgem" show up more?
"virgem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,241 in our Portuguese list, against #26,242 for "viragem". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "viragem" and "virgem".

  • Full dictionary entry for "viragem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "virgem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #39,136 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "viragem" and "virgem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vagem vs viragem". 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 #39,136 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