acatarvsadaptarTell them apart

Which to use

“acatar” and “adaptar” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#21,543
“acatar” frequency rank
#12,960
“adaptar” frequency rank
34503
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acatar adaptar
Definition Tributar homenaje de sumisión y respeto. Hacer apto. Modificar algo para que cumpla cierto objetivo, o para que se corresponda con otra cosa.

Where the eye mixes acatar and adaptar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
acatar
7 ch
adaptar

Why the eye confuses acatar with adaptar

A purely visual mix-up. acatar ([akaˈt̪aɾ]) and adaptar ([að̞apˈt̪aɾ]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34503, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

acatar is recorded at frequency rank #21,543, classified as averb, pronounced [akaˈt̪aɾ]. adaptar is at rank #12,960, tagged as averb, pronounced [að̞apˈt̪aɾ].

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 34503, this pair ranks #191,091 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of acatar vs adaptar

Shared letters: art. Private to "acatar": c. Private to "adaptar": dp.

"acatar" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC  ·  "adaptar" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • acataraactar · acaatr · acatarr · acatra · acattar · accatar · actaar · caatar
  • adaptaraadptar · adapatr · adapptar · adaptarr · adaptra · adapttar · adatpar · addaptar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "acatar" for "adaptar" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([akaˈt̪aɾ] versus [að̞apˈt̪aɾ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "acatar" or "adaptar"?
"adaptar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,960 in our Spanish list, against #21,543 for "acatar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "acatar" and "adaptar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "acatar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "adaptar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #191,091 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "acatar" and "adaptar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acatar vs azotar". 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 #191,091 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list