aliarvsatarWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#20,190
“aliar” frequency rank
#48,254
“atar” frequency rank
68444
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aliar atar
Definition fazer ligação de apertar atilho com nó; amarrar; ligar; manietar:

Where the eye mixes aliar and atar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
aliar
4 ch
atar

Look-alike desk: aliar vs atar

A purely visual mix-up. aliar (/ɐ.ˈljaɾ/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68444, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aliar is recorded at frequency rank #20,190, classified as averb, pronounced /ɐ.ˈljaɾ/. 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 68444, this pair ranks #4,272 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of aliar vs atar

Shared letters: ar. Private to "aliar": il. Private to "atar": t.

"aliar" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC  ·  "atar" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aliarailar · alair · aliarr · alira · alliar · laiar
  • ataraatr · atarr · attar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "aliar" for "atar" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.ˈljaɾ/ versus /ɐ.ˈtaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "aliar" or "atar"?
"aliar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,190 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

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "aliar" 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 #4,272 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aliar" 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 #4,272 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