arcarvsatacarWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#19,058
“arcar” frequency rank
#2,818
“atacar” frequency rank
21876
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature arcar atacar
Definition arquear fazer o ataque a; acometer

Where the eye mixes arcar and atacar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
arcar
6 ch
atacar

Visual trap between arcar and atacar

A purely visual mix-up. arcar (/ɐɾ.ˈkaɾ/) and atacar (/ɐ.tɐ.ˈkaɾ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21876, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

arcar is recorded at frequency rank #19,058, classified as averb, pronounced /ɐɾ.ˈkaɾ/. atacar is at rank #2,818, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐ.tɐ.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 21876, this pair ranks #48,275 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of arcar vs atacar

Shared letters: acr. Private to "arcar": -. Private to "atacar": t.

"arcar" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "atacar" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • arcaracrar · aracr · arcarr · arccar · arcra · arrcar · racar
  • atacaraatcar · ataacr · atacarr · ataccar · atacra · atcaar · attacar · taacar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "arcar" for "atacar" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɐɾ.ˈkaɾ/ versus /ɐ.tɐ.ˈkaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "arcar" vs "atacar" - which ranks higher?
"atacar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,818 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

Eye-level mix-up between "arcar" and "atacar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "arcar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "atacar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #48,275 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "arcar" and "atacar" 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 #48,275 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