altarvsatearWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#8,141
“altar” frequency rank
#38,140
“atear” frequency rank
46281
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Letter map: altar vs atear

Shared letters muted; letters that set altar and atear apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. altar (VCCVC) and atear (VCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
altar
5 ch
atear

Grammar separator: altar vs atear

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: altar is anoun and atearaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46281, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

altar is recorded at frequency rank #8,141, classified as anoun. atear is at rank #38,140, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐ.ˈtjaɾ/.

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 46281, this pair ranks #19,056 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of altar vs atear

Shared letters: art. Private to "altar": l. Private to "atear": e.

"altar" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "atear" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • altar ← alatr · alltar · altarr · altra · alttar · atlar · latar
  • atear ← aetar · ataer · atearr · atera · attear · taear

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "altar" for "atear" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "altar" is a noun and "atear" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "altar" vs "atear" - which ranks higher?
"altar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,141 in our Portuguese list, against #38,140 for "atear". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "altar" vs "atear" 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 "atear" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #19,056 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "altar" and "atear" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "atar vs atear". 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 #19,056 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