altarvsalturaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#8,141
“altar” frequency rank
#905
“altura” frequency rank
9046
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature altar altura
Definition estrutura elevada perante a qual cerimônias religiosas são realizadas ou na qual sacrifícios podem ser oferecidos aos deuses, ancestrais, etc comprimento de um objeto medido da base até o topo

Letter map: altar vs altura

Shared letters muted; letters that set altar and altura apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. altar runs 5 letters (VCCVC) against altura's 6 (VCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
altar
6 ch
altura

Corpus notes: altar and altura

altar and altura 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9046, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

altar is recorded at frequency rank #8,141, classified as anoun. altura is at rank #905, tagged as anoun, pronounced /aɫ.ˈtu.ɾɐ/.

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 9046, this pair ranks #64,520 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of altar vs altura

Shared letters: alrt. Private to "altar": -. Private to "altura": u.

"altar" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "altura" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • altar ← alatr · alltar · altarr · altra · alttar · atlar · latar
  • altura ← alltura · altrua · alttura · altuar · alturra · alutra · atlura · latura

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "altar" for "altura" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 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: "altar" vs "altura" - which ranks higher?
"altura" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #905 in our Portuguese list, against #8,141 for "altar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "altar" vs "altura" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "altar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "altura" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #64,520 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "altar" and "altura" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "altar 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 #64,520 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