atearvsaterroTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#38,140
“atear” frequency rank
#15,022
“aterro” frequency rank
53162
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature atear aterro
Definition lançar fogo a ação ou efeito de aterrar

Where the eye mixes atear and aterro

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. atear runs 5 letters (VCVVC) against aterro's 6 (VCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
atear
6 ch
aterro

Visual trap between atear and aterro

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: atear is /ɐ.ˈtjaɾ/ while aterro is /ɐ.ˈte.Ru/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53162, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

atear is recorded at frequency rank #38,140, classified as averb, pronounced /ɐ.ˈtjaɾ/. aterro is at rank #15,022, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.ˈte.Ru/.

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 53162, this pair ranks #12,227 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of atear vs aterro

Shared letters: aert. Private to "atear": -. Private to "aterro": o.

"atear" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC  ·  "aterro" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • atear ← aetar · ataer · atearr · atera · attear · taear
  • aterro ← aetrro · atero · ateror · atrero · atterro · taerro

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "atear" and "aterro" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "atear" is a verb and "aterro" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "atear" vs "aterro" - which ranks higher?
"aterro" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,022 in our Portuguese list, against #38,140 for "atear". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "atear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aterro" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #12,227 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "atear" and "aterro" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "atar vs atear". 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 #12,227 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