altasvsAtanWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: altas is a adjective, Atan is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“altas” is an adjective and “Atan” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,327
“altas” frequency rank
#36,936
“Atan” frequency rank
39263
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature altas Atan
Definition Forma del femenino plural de alto. Apellido.

Where the eye mixes altas and Atan

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
altas
4 ch
Atan

Look-alike desk: altas vs Atan

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: altas is [ˈal̪t̪as] while Atan is [ˈat̪ãn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39263, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

altas is recorded at frequency rank #2,327, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈal̪t̪as]. Atan is at rank #36,936, tagged as aname, pronounced [ˈat̪ãn].

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 39263, this pair ranks #165,551 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of altas vs Atan

Shared letters: at. Private to "altas": ls. Private to "Atan": n.

"altas" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "Atan" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • altasalats · alltas · altass · altsa · alttas
  • Atanaatn · atann · atna · attan · taan

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "altas" for "Atan" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "altas" is an adjective and "Atan" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "altas" or "Atan" show up more?
"altas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,327 in our Spanish list, against #36,936 for "Atan". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "altas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Atan" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #165,551 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "altas" and "Atan" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Atan vs ataron". 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 #165,551 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