alter vs altho, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“alter” is a verb and “altho” is a conjunction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,540
“alter” frequency rank: #44,055
“altho” frequency rank: 50595
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	alter	altho
Definition	To change the form or structure of.	Alternative spelling of although.

Letter map: alter vs altho

Shared letters muted; letters that set alter and altho apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch

alter

5 ch

altho

Role in the sentence - alter and altho

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: alter is averb and althoaconjunction. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50595, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

alter is recorded at frequency rank #6,540, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈɒl.tə/. altho is at rank #44,055, tagged as aconj.

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 50595, this pair ranks #172,858 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of alter vs altho

Shared letters: alt. Private to "alter": er. Private to "altho": ho.

"alter" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC · "altho" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

alter ← allter · alterr · altre · atler
altho ← alhto · alltho · althho · altoh · alttho · atlho · latho

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "alter" and "altho" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "alter" is a verb and "altho" a conjunction, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "alter" vs "altho" - which ranks higher?

"alter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,540 in our English list, against #44,055 for "altho". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "alter" and "altho". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "alter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "altho" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #172,858 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"alter" and "altho" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "algo vs altho". 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 #172,858 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.