AjaxvsatarTell them apart

Quick tell: Ajax is a noun, atar is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Ajax” is a noun and “atar” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#27,343
“Ajax” frequency rank
#48,254
“atar” frequency rank
75597
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Ajax atar
Definition personagem da mitologia grega apertar atilho com nó; amarrar; ligar; manietar:

Letter map: Ajax vs atar

Shared letters muted; letters that set Ajax and atar apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. Ajax and atar follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
Ajax
4 ch
atar

Role in the sentence - Ajax and atar

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Ajax is anoun and ataraverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75597, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Ajax is recorded at frequency rank #27,343, classified as anoun. 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 75597, this pair ranks #2,267 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Ajax vs atar

Shared letters: a. Private to "Ajax": jx. Private to "atar": rt.

"Ajax" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "atar" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Ajax ← aajx · ajaxx · ajjax · ajxa · jaax
  • atar ← aatr · atarr · attar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Ajax" for "atar" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Ajax" is a noun and "atar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "Ajax" or "atar" show up more?
"Ajax" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,343 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.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Ajax" 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 #2,267 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Ajax" 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 #2,267 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