altarvsATRTell them apart

Which to use

“altar” and “ATR” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#9,562
“altar” frequency rank
#46,320
“ATR” frequency rank
55882
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature altar ATR
Definition A table or similar flat-topped structure used for religious rites. Initialism of advanced tongue root.

Letter map: altar vs ATR

Shared letters muted; letters that set altar and ATR apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
altar
3 ch
ATR

Spelling & dictionary notes on altar vs ATR

altar and ATR are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55882, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

altar is recorded at frequency rank #9,562, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɒl.tə/. ATR is at rank #46,320, tagged as anoun.

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 55882, this pair ranks #130,237 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of altar vs ATR

Shared letters: art. Private to "altar": l. Private to "ATR": -.

"altar" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "ATR" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • altaralatr · alltar · altarr · altra · alttar · atlar · latar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "altar" for "ATR" ever safe?
No. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "altar" vs "ATR" - which ranks higher?
"altar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,562 in our English list, against #46,320 for "ATR". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "altar" and "ATR".

  • Full dictionary entry for "altar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ATR" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #130,237 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "altar" and "ATR" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Asta vs ATR". 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 #130,237 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list