atadovsatrasoWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#37,645
“atado” frequency rank
#4,206
“atraso” frequency rank
41851
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature atado atraso
Definition preso com uma corda ou atacador ato ou efeito de atrasar(-se)

Letter map: atado vs atraso

Shared letters muted; letters that set atado and atraso apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. atado runs 5 letters (VCVCV) against atraso's 6 (VCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
atado
6 ch
atraso

Grammar separator: atado vs atraso

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: atado is anadjective and atrasoanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41851, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

atado is recorded at frequency rank #37,645, classified as anadj. atraso is at rank #4,206, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.ˈtɾa.zu/.

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 41851, this pair ranks #24,020 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of atado vs atraso

Shared letters: aot. Private to "atado": d. Private to "atraso": rs.

"atado" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "atraso" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • atado ← aatdo · ataddo · ataod · atdao · attado · taado
  • atraso ← artaso · atarso · atraos · atrasso · atrraso · atrsao · attraso · taraso

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "atado" and "atraso" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "atado" is an adjective and "atraso" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "atado" vs "atraso" - which ranks higher?
"atraso" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,206 in our Portuguese list, against #37,645 for "atado". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "atado" and "atraso". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "atado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "atraso" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #24,020 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "atado" and "atraso" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "atado 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 #24,020 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