atacarvsaturarTell them apart

Which to use

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

#2,818
“atacar” frequency rank
#21,370
“aturar” frequency rank
24188
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature atacar aturar
Definition fazer o ataque a; acometer suportar

Where the eye mixes atacar and aturar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. atacar and aturar follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
atacar
6 ch
aturar

Visual trap between atacar and aturar

A purely visual mix-up. atacar (/ɐ.tɐ.ˈkaɾ/) and aturar (/ɐ.tu.ˈɾaɾ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24188, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

atacar is recorded at frequency rank #2,818, classified as averb, pronounced /ɐ.tɐ.ˈkaɾ/. aturar is at rank #21,370, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐ.tu.ˈɾaɾ/.

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 24188, this pair ranks #45,490 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of atacar vs aturar

Shared letters: art. Private to "atacar": c. Private to "aturar": u.

"atacar" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC  ·  "aturar" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • atacar ← aatcar · ataacr · atacarr · ataccar · atacra · atcaar · attacar · taacar
  • aturar ← atruar · atturar · aturarr · aturra · aturrar · autrar · taurar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "atacar" for "aturar" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.tɐ.ˈkaɾ/ versus /ɐ.tu.ˈɾaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "atacar" vs "aturar" - which ranks higher?
"atacar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,818 in our Portuguese list, against #21,370 for "aturar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "atacar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aturar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #45,490 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "atacar" and "aturar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "atar vs aturar". 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 #45,490 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