ardervsaterWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#20,500
“arder” frequency rank
#39,000
“ater” frequency rank
59500
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature arder ater
Definition inflamar-se, estar em chamas não permitir que tenha seguimento; impedir que prossiga

Letter map: arder vs ater

Shared letters muted; letters that set arder and ater apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. arder runs 5 letters (VCCVC) against ater's 4 (VCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
arder
4 ch
ater

Corpus notes: arder and ater

arder and ater 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 59500, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

arder is recorded at frequency rank #20,500, classified as averb, pronounced /ɐɾ.ˈdeɾ/. ater is at rank #39,000, tagged as averb.

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 59500, this pair ranks #8,156 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of arder vs ater

Shared letters: aer. Private to "arder": d. Private to "ater": t.

"arder" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "ater" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • arder ← adrer · ardder · arderr · ardre · aredr · arrder · rader
  • ater ← aetr · aterr · atter

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "arder" and "ater" mean the same thing in a sentence?
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.
Which is more common, "arder" or "ater"?
"arder" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,500 in our Portuguese list, against #39,000 for "ater". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "arder" and "ater". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "arder" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ater" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #8,156 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "arder" and "ater" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "atar vs ater". 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 #8,156 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