afetarvsatarConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#7,855
“afetar” frequency rank
#48,254
“atar” frequency rank
56109
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature afetar atar
Definition fingir apertar atilho com nó; amarrar; ligar; manietar:

Letter map: afetar vs atar

Shared letters muted; letters that set afetar and atar apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
afetar
4 ch
atar

Pair insight - afetar / atar

afetar and atar are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56109, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

afetar is recorded at frequency rank #7,855, classified as averb. atar is at rank #48,254, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐ.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 56109, this pair ranks #10,175 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of afetar vs atar

Shared letters: art. Private to "afetar": ef. Private to "atar": -.

"afetar" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC  ·  "atar" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • afetaraeftar · afeatr · afetarr · afetra · afettar · affetar · aftear · faetar
  • ataraatr · atarr · attar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "afetar" and "atar" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "afetar" vs "atar" - which ranks higher?
"afetar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,855 in our Portuguese list, against #48,254 for "atar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "afetar" and "atar".

  • Full dictionary entry for "afetar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "atar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #10,175 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "afetar" and "atar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "afã 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 #10,175 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