atavsatuarTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#8,716
“ata” frequency rank
#4,207
“atuar” frequency rank
12923
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ata atuar
Definition registro escrito do que se passou em uma reunião exercer ação

Where the eye mixes ata and atuar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
ata
5 ch
atuar

Look-alike desk: ata vs atuar

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ata is /ˈa.tɐ/ while atuar is /ɐ.ˈtwaɾ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12923, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ata is recorded at frequency rank #8,716, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈa.tɐ/. atuar is at rank #4,207, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐ.ˈtwaɾ/.

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 12923, this pair ranks #59,543 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ata vs atuar

Shared letters: at. Private to "ata": -. Private to "atuar": ru.

"ata" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "atuar" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • atuarataur · attuar · atuarr · atura · autar · tauar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ata" for "atuar" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ata" is a noun and "atuar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "ata" or "atuar" show up more?
"atuar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,207 in our Portuguese list, against #8,716 for "ata". 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 "ata" and "atuar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ata" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "atuar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #59,543 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ata" and "atuar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs ata". 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 #59,543 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