afastarvsatestarWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,955
“afastar” frequency rank
#39,482
“atestar” frequency rank
43437
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature afastar atestar
Definition transitivo: afirmar como testemunha

Where the eye mixes afastar and atestar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. afastar and atestar follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
afastar
7 ch
atestar

Why the eye confuses afastar with atestar

A purely visual mix-up. afastar (/ɐ.fɐʃ.ˈtaɾ/) and atestar (/ɐ.tɨʃ.ˈtaɾ/) 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 43437, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

afastar is recorded at frequency rank #3,955, classified as averb, pronounced /ɐ.fɐʃ.ˈtaɾ/. atestar is at rank #39,482, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐ.tɨʃ.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 43437, this pair ranks #22,200 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of afastar vs atestar

Shared letters: arst. Private to "afastar": f. Private to "atestar": e.

"afastar" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC  ·  "atestar" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • afastar ← aafstar · afasatr · afasstar · afastarr · afastra · afasttar · afatsar · affastar
  • atestar ← aetstar · atesatr · atesstar · atestarr · atestra · atesttar · atetsar · atsetar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "afastar" for "atestar" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.fɐʃ.ˈtaɾ/ versus /ɐ.tɨʃ.ˈtaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "afastar" or "atestar"?
"afastar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,955 in our Portuguese list, against #39,482 for "atestar". 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 "afastar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "atestar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #22,200 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "afastar" and "atestar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "atear vs atestar". 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 #22,200 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