acervovsaterroConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#7,237
“acervo” frequency rank
#15,022
“aterro” frequency rank
22259
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acervo aterro
Definition reunião ou enorme conjunto de itens, montão ação ou efeito de aterrar

Where the eye mixes acervo and aterro

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
acervo
6 ch
aterro

Visual trap between acervo and aterro

A purely visual mix-up. acervo (/ɐ.ˈseɾ.vu/) and aterro (/ɐ.ˈte.Ru/) 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 22259, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

acervo is recorded at frequency rank #7,237, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.ˈseɾ.vu/. aterro is at rank #15,022, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.ˈte.Ru/.

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 22259, this pair ranks #47,840 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of acervo vs aterro

Shared letters: aeor. Private to "acervo": cv. Private to "aterro": t.

"acervo" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV  ·  "aterro" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • acervoaccervo · acerov · acerrvo · acervvo · acevro · acrevo · aecrvo · caervo
  • aterroaetrro · atero · ateror · atrero · atterro · taerro

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "acervo" for "aterro" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.ˈseɾ.vu/ versus /ɐ.ˈte.Ru/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "acervo" or "aterro"?
"acervo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,237 in our Portuguese list, against #15,022 for "aterro". 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 "acervo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aterro" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #47,840 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "acervo" and "aterro" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alegro vs aterro". 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 #47,840 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