altarvsarcarWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#8,141
“altar” frequency rank
#19,058
“arcar” frequency rank
27199
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Letter map: altar vs arcar

Shared letters muted; letters that set altar and arcar apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
altar
5 ch
arcar

Part-of-speech tell for altar / arcar

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: altar is anoun and arcaraverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27199, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

altar is recorded at frequency rank #8,141, classified as anoun. arcar is at rank #19,058, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐɾ.ˈkaɾ/.

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 27199, this pair ranks #41,813 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of altar vs arcar

Shared letters: ar. Private to "altar": lt. Private to "arcar": c.

"altar" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "arcar" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • altaralatr · alltar · altarr · altra · alttar · atlar · latar
  • arcaracrar · aracr · arcarr · arccar · arcra · arrcar · racar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "altar" and "arcar" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "altar" is a noun and "arcar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "altar" vs "arcar" - which ranks higher?
"altar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,141 in our Portuguese list, against #19,058 for "arcar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "altar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "arcar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #41,813 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "altar" and "arcar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "arcar 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 #41,813 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