acatarvsadotarTell them apart

Which to use

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

#32,036
“acatar” frequency rank
#6,258
“adotar” frequency rank
38294
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acatar adotar
Definition respeitar, venerar assumir para si a responsabilidade jurídica de criar (criança ou adolescente):

Where the eye mixes acatar and adotar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. acatar and adotar follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
acatar
6 ch
adotar

Look-alike desk: acatar vs adotar

A purely visual mix-up. acatar (/ɐ.kɐ.ˈtaɾ/) and adotar (/ɐ.dɔ.ˈtaɾ/, /ɐ.dɔ.ˈta/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38294, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

acatar is recorded at frequency rank #32,036, classified as averb, pronounced /ɐ.kɐ.ˈtaɾ/. adotar is at rank #6,258, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐ.dɔ.ˈtaɾ/, /ɐ.dɔ.ˈta/.

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 38294, this pair ranks #28,187 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of acatar vs adotar

Shared letters: art. Private to "acatar": c. Private to "adotar": do.

"acatar" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC  ·  "adotar" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • acatar ← aactar · acaatr · acatarr · acatra · acattar · accatar · actaar · caatar
  • adotar ← addotar · adoatr · adotarr · adotra · adottar · adtoar · aodtar · daotar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "acatar" and "adotar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.kɐ.ˈtaɾ/ versus /ɐ.dɔ.ˈtaɾ/, /ɐ.dɔ.ˈta/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "acatar" or "adotar"?
"adotar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,258 in our Portuguese list, against #32,036 for "acatar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "acatar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "adotar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #28,187 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "acatar" and "adotar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acatar vs atar". 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 #28,187 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