What does “chiquérrimo” mean in Portuguese?

Brincando de adivinhar placas de rua absurdas

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B2 Portuguese listening practice · Brazilian Portuguese · Curated for upper-intermediate learners

💡 Did you know?
-érrimo (chiquérrimo, breguérrimo)
Brazilian Portuguese playful superlative
“super-,” “ultra-”: chiquérrima = ultra-chic, breguérrimo = ultra-tacky

The usual way to say “very” in one word is -íssimo: lindíssimo (very beautiful), caríssimo (very expensive). A few words use an older ending, -érrimo, like paupérrimo (extremely poor). Brazilians borrow that ending for fun. Chiquérrima is ultra-chic, and breguérrimo is ultra-tacky (brega = tacky, cheesy). It sounds fake-fancy on purpose.

Chiquérrimo is common enough to appear in dictionaries as an informal word for “very chic.” The -érrimo forms go back to Latin superlatives like pauperrimus. In this sketch, a made-up sign bans ribbons in your hair. The verdict: the sign is chiquérrima, and ribbons in your hair are breguérrimo mesmo.

Vocabulary frequency

How common is the vocabulary in this B2 Portuguese listening practice listening practice?

88.6%
of words are in the top 2,000 most common Portuguese words
Based on this reel’s transcript, most of the vocabulary is high-frequency, everyday Portuguese.

General Portuguese frequency

80%
Top 1,000
88.6%
Top 2,000
100%
Top 5,000

Spoken Portuguese frequency

80.9%
Top 1,000
94.1%
Top 2,000
100%
Top 5,000
👄 Conversational vocabulary
This reel’s words appear more often in subtitle-based spoken-Portuguese data than in general usage, so it may feel closer to everyday conversation.

Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-PT-BR 2012 (spoken). Buckets approximate; exact ranks not stored.

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