atacadovsatraçãoConfusable pair

Quick tell: atacado is a adjective, atração is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“atacado” is an adjective and “atração” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,063
“atacado” frequency rank
#4,879
“atração” frequency rank
9942
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature atacado atração
Definition atado com atacador efeito ou ação de atrair

Where the eye mixes atacado and atração

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. atacado (VCVCVCV) and atração (VCCVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
atacado
7 ch
atração

Why the eye confuses atacado with atração

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: atacado is /ɐ.tɐ.ˈka.du/ while atração is /ɐ.tɾa.ˈsɐ̃w̃/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9942, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

atacado is recorded at frequency rank #5,063, classified as anadj, pronounced /ɐ.tɐ.ˈka.du/. atração is at rank #4,879, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.tɾa.ˈsɐ̃w̃/.

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 9942, this pair ranks #63,320 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of atacado vs atração

Shared letters: aot. Private to "atacado": cd. Private to "atração": rãç.

"atacado" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVCV  ·  "atração" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • atacadoaatcado · ataacdo · atacaddo · atacaod · ataccado · atacdao · atcaado · attacado

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "atacado" and "atração" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "atacado" is an adjective and "atração" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "atacado" or "atração"?
"atração" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,879 in our Portuguese list, against #5,063 for "atacado". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "atacado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "atração" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #63,320 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "atacado" and "atração" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "atacado vs Atacama". 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 #63,320 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