Which to use
“at” is a preposition and “atar” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,457
- “at” frequency rank
- #48,254
- “atar” frequency rank
- 49711
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | at | atar |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | em, a | apertar atilho com nó; amarrar; ligar; manietar: |
Where the eye mixes at and atar
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses at with atar
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: at is \æt\ while atar is /ɐ.ˈtaɾ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “at” sits inside “atar”, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49711, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
at is recorded at frequency rank #1,457, classified as aprep, pronounced \æt\. 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 49711, this pair ranks #15,278 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of at vs atar
Shared letters: at. Private to "at": -. Private to "atar": r.
"at" · 2 letters · shape VC · "atar" · 4 letters · shape VCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- atar ← aatr · atarr · attar
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "at" for "atar" ever safe?
Frequency check: "at" vs "atar" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "at" and "atar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "at" 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 #15,278 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "at" 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 #15,278 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.