acatarvsafastarTell them apart

Which to use

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

#32,036
“acatar” frequency rank
#3,955
“afastar” frequency rank
35991
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acatar afastar
Definition respeitar, venerar transitivo:

Where the eye mixes acatar and afastar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. acatar runs 6 letters (VCVCVC) against afastar's 7 (VCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
acatar
7 ch
afastar

Look-alike desk: acatar vs afastar

A purely visual mix-up. acatar (/ɐ.kɐ.ˈtaɾ/) and afastar (/ɐ.fɐʃ.ˈtaɾ/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35991, 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/. afastar is at rank #3,955, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐ.fɐʃ.ˈtaɾ/.

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 35991, this pair ranks #30,929 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of acatar vs afastar

Shared letters: art. Private to "acatar": c. Private to "afastar": fs.

"acatar" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC  ·  "afastar" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • acatar ← aactar · acaatr · acatarr · acatra · acattar · accatar · actaar · caatar
  • afastar ← aafstar · afasatr · afasstar · afastarr · afastra · afasttar · afatsar · affastar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "acatar" and "afastar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.kɐ.ˈtaɾ/ versus /ɐ.fɐʃ.ˈtaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "acatar" vs "afastar" - which ranks higher?
"afastar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,955 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.

What to do next

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 "afastar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #30,929 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "acatar" and "afastar" 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 #30,929 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