agitarvsatarWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#16,211
“agitar” frequency rank
#48,254
“atar” frequency rank
64465
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature agitar atar
Definition abanar, sacudir apertar atilho com nó; amarrar; ligar; manietar:

Where the eye mixes agitar and atar

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

6 ch
agitar
4 ch
atar

Look-alike desk: agitar vs atar

A purely visual mix-up. agitar (/ɐ.ʒi.ˈtaɾ/) and atar (/ɐ.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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64465, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

agitar is recorded at frequency rank #16,211, classified as averb, pronounced /ɐ.ʒi.ˈtaɾ/. 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 64465, this pair ranks #5,765 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of agitar vs atar

Shared letters: art. Private to "agitar": gi. Private to "atar": -.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • agitaraggitar · agiatr · agitarr · agitra · agittar · agtiar · aigtar · gaitar
  • ataraatr · atarr · attar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "agitar" and "atar" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.ʒi.ˈtaɾ/ versus /ɐ.ˈtaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "agitar" vs "atar" - which ranks higher?
"agitar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,211 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

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "agitar" 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 #5,765 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "agitar" 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 #5,765 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