acendervsatenderWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#10,817
“acender” frequency rank
#2,611
“atender” frequency rank
13428
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acender atender
Definition pôr fogo a dar atenção a, ouvir

Where the eye mixes acender and atender

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
acender
7 ch
atender

Visual trap between acender and atender

A purely visual mix-up. acender (/ɐ.sẽ.ˈdeɾ/) and atender (/ɐ.tẽ.ˈdeɾ/) 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 a single letter - c in “acender” becomes t in “atender”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13428, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

acender is recorded at frequency rank #10,817, classified as averb, pronounced /ɐ.sẽ.ˈdeɾ/. atender is at rank #2,611, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐ.tẽ.ˈdeɾ/.

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 13428, this pair ranks #58,917 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of acender vs atender

Shared letters: adenr. Private to "acender": c. Private to "atender": t.

"acender" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC  ·  "atender" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • acenderaccender · acedner · acendder · acenderr · acendre · acenedr · acennder · acneder
  • atenderaetnder · atedner · atendder · atenderr · atendre · atenedr · atennder · atneder

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "acender" and "atender" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.sẽ.ˈdeɾ/ versus /ɐ.tẽ.ˈdeɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "acender" or "atender"?
"atender" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,611 in our Portuguese list, against #10,817 for "acender". 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 "acender" and "atender" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "acender" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "atender" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #58,917 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "acender" and "atender" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acenar vs acender". 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 #58,917 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