arrasavsatrásTell them apart

Quick tell: arrasa is a verb, atrás is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“arrasa” is a verb and “atrás” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#32,502
“arrasa” frequency rank
#907
“atrás” frequency rank
33409
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature arrasa atrás
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de arrasar o de arrasarse. Denota la parte posterior de alguna cosa o lo que está o queda a las espaldas.

Where the eye mixes arrasa and atrás

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

6 ch
arrasa
5 ch
atrás

Visual trap between arrasa and atrás

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: arrasa is [aˈrasa] while atrás is [aˈt̪ɾas]. 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 (verb vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33409, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

arrasa is recorded at frequency rank #32,502, classified as averb, pronounced [aˈrasa]. atrás is at rank #907, tagged as anadv, pronounced [aˈt̪ɾas].

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 33409, this pair ranks #196,968 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of arrasa vs atrás

Shared letters: ars. Private to "arrasa": -. Private to "atrás": .

"arrasa" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "atrás" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • arrasaararsa · arasa · arraas · arrassa · arrsaa · rarasa

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "arrasa" and "atrás" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "arrasa" is a verb and "atrás" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "arrasa" or "atrás" show up more?
"atrás" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #907 in our Spanish list, against #32,502 for "arrasa". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "arrasa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "atrás" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #196,968 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "arrasa" and "atrás" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "arrasa vs arresta". 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 #196,968 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