Which to use
“Alger” is a name and “altar” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #45,778
- “Alger” frequency rank
- #9,562
- “altar” frequency rank
- 55340
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Alger | altar |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A male given name from the Germanic languages, variant of Elgar. | A table or similar flat-topped structure used for religious rites. |
Letter map: Alger vs altar
Shared letters muted; letters that set Alger and altar apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. Alger and altar follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Grammar separator: Alger vs altar
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Alger is aname and altaranoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55340, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Alger is recorded at frequency rank #45,778, classified as aname. altar is at rank #9,562, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɒl.tə/.
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 55340, this pair ranks #134,360 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of Alger vs altar
Shared letters: alr. Private to "Alger": eg. Private to "altar": t.
"Alger" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC · "altar" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "Alger" and "altar" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "Alger" or "altar" show up more?
What to do next
You've compared "Alger" and "altar". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "Alger" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "altar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #134,360 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Alger" and "altar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Alger vs algo". 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 #134,360 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.