Altar or alter?
altar is a noun meaning “A table or similar flat-topped structure used for religious rites”; alter is a verb meaning “To change the form or structure of”. Use altar as a noun and alter as a verb (alter is also a noun: “One of the personalities, identities, or selves in a person…”). They sound the same (/ˈɒl.tə/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) alter is about 1.8 times as common as altar.
What is the difference between altar and alter?
| altar | alter | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | verb, noun, prefix |
| Meaning | A table or similar flat-topped structure used for religious rites informalA raised area around an altar in a church; the sanctuary | To change the form or structure of To become different One of the personalities, identities, or selves in a person with dissociative identity disorder or another form of multiplicity |
| Example | none recorded | Near-synonym: tweak |
| Forms | altars | alters, altering, altered |
| Pronunciation | /ˈɒl.tə/ /ˈɔːl.tə/ /ˈɔl.tə/ | /ˈɒl.tə/ /ˈɔːl.tə/ /ˈɔl.təɹ/ |
| In writing | 6.3 times per million words | 11 times per million words |
Sources: altar and alter in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of altar and alter
altar
- 1
A table or similar flat-topped structure used for religious rites
- 2
informalA raised area around an altar in a church; the sanctuary
- 3
Any (real or notional) place where something is worshipped or sacrificed to
alter
- 1
To change the form or structure of
Near-synonym: tweak
- 2
One of the personalities, identities, or selves in a person with dissociative identity disorder or another form of multiplicity
- 3
Denotes a philosophy in opposition to or variation on the suffixed term
- 4
To become different
- 5
To tailor clothes to make them fit
- 6
To castrate, neuter or spay (a dog or other animal)
- 7
To affect mentally, as by psychotropic drugs or illness
We don't know if he was altered on alcohol or drugs or anything […]
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, altar or alter?
altar appears 6.3 times per million words; alter 11 times per million words.
altar 6.3 times per million wordsalter 11 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search altar vs alter?
“altar vs alter” is searched about 1,000 times a month on Google and 50 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“alter vs altar”, “altar or alter”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.