Which to use
“altar” is a noun and “atar” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,141
- “altar” frequency rank
- #48,254
- “atar” frequency rank
- 56395
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | altar | atar |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | estrutura elevada perante a qual cerimônias religiosas são realizadas ou na qual sacrifícios podem ser oferecidos aos deuses, ancestrais, etc | apertar atilho com nó; amarrar; ligar; manietar: |
Letter map: altar vs atar
Shared letters muted; letters that set altar and atar apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.
Part-of-speech tell for altar / atar
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: altar is anoun and ataraverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56395, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
altar is recorded at frequency rank #8,141, 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 56395, this pair ranks #10,005 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of altar vs atar
Shared letters: art. Private to "altar": l. Private to "atar": -.
"altar" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC · "atar" · 4 letters · shape VCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "altar" and "atar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "altar" or "atar"?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "altar" and "atar".
- Full dictionary entry for "altar" 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 #10,005 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "altar" 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 #10,005 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.