Which to use
“altar” and “altares” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,615
- “altar” frequency rank
- #20,566
- “altares” frequency rank
- 27181
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | altar | altares |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Montículo, piedra o construcción elevada donde se celebran ritos religiosos como sacrificios, ofrendas, etc. | Forma del plural de altar. |
Where the eye mixes altar and altares
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. altar runs 5 letters (VCCVC) against altares's 7 (VCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses altar with altares
A purely visual mix-up. altar ([al̪ˈt̪aɾ]) and altares ([al̪ˈt̪aɾes]) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “altar” sits inside “altares”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27181, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
altar is recorded at frequency rank #6,615, classified as anoun, pronounced [al̪ˈt̪aɾ]. altares is at rank #20,566, tagged as anoun, pronounced [al̪ˈt̪aɾes].
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 27181, this pair ranks #228,077 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of altar vs altares
Shared letters: alrt. Private to "altar": -. Private to "altares": es.
"altar" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC · "altares" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "altar" and "altares" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "altar" or "altares" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "altar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "altares" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #228,077 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "altar" and "altares" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "altares vs Antares". 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 #228,077 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.