abrirvsatrizTell them apart

Quick tell: abrir is a verb, atriz is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“abrir” is a verb and “atriz” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,038
“abrir” frequency rank
#2,506
“atriz” frequency rank
3544
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature abrir atriz
Definition levar de um estado fechado para um aberto, descerrar feminino de ator

Where the eye mixes abrir and atriz

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. abrir and atriz follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
abrir
5 ch
atriz

Look-alike desk: abrir vs atriz

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: abrir is /ɐ.ˈbɾiɾ/ while atriz is /ɐ.ˈtɾiʃ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3544, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

abrir is recorded at frequency rank #1,038, classified as averb, pronounced /ɐ.ˈbɾiɾ/. atriz is at rank #2,506, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.ˈtɾiʃ/.

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 3544, this pair ranks #71,580 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of abrir vs atriz

Shared letters: air. Private to "abrir": b. Private to "atriz": tz.

"abrir" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "atriz" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • abrir ← abbrir · abirr · abrirr · abrri · abrrir · arbir · barir
  • atriz ← artiz · atirz · atrizz · atrriz · atrzi · attriz · tariz

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "abrir" and "atriz" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "abrir" is a verb and "atriz" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "abrir" or "atriz"?
"abrir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,038 in our Portuguese list, against #2,506 for "atriz". 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 "abrir" and "atriz" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "abrir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "atriz" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #71,580 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "abrir" and "atriz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "atriz vs atroz". 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 #71,580 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list