allavsaltarConfusable pair

Quick tell: alla is a contraction, altar is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“alla” is a contraction and “altar” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#36,313
“alla” frequency rank
#8,141
“altar” frequency rank
44454
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature alla altar
Definition na estrutura elevada perante a qual cerimônias religiosas são realizadas ou na qual sacrifícios podem ser oferecidos aos deuses, ancestrais, etc

Letter map: alla vs altar

Shared letters muted; letters that set alla and altar apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. alla runs 4 letters (VCCV) against altar's 5 (VCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
alla
5 ch
altar

Grammar separator: alla vs altar

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: alla is acontraction and altaranoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44454, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

alla is recorded at frequency rank #36,313, classified as acontraction. altar is at rank #8,141, tagged as anoun.

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 44454, this pair ranks #21,031 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of alla vs altar

Shared letters: al. Private to "alla": -. Private to "altar": rt.

"alla" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "altar" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • alla ← alal · lala
  • altar ← alatr · alltar · altarr · altra · alttar · atlar · latar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "alla" and "altar" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "alla" is a contraction and "altar" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "alla" vs "altar" - which ranks higher?
"altar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,141 in our Portuguese list, against #36,313 for "alla". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "alla" and "altar". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "alla" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "altar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #21,031 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "alla" and "altar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alla vs alles". 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 #21,031 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