atearvsatirarConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#38,140
“atear” frequency rank
#6,264
“atirar” frequency rank
44404
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature atear atirar
Definition lançar fogo a lançar um projétil contra um alvo ou pessoa

Where the eye mixes atear and atirar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
atear
6 ch
atirar

Visual trap between atear and atirar

A purely visual mix-up. atear (/ɐ.ˈtjaɾ/) and atirar (/ɐ.ti.ˈɾaɾ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44404, 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/. atirar is at rank #6,264, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐ.ti.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 44404, this pair ranks #21,091 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of atear vs atirar

Shared letters: art. Private to "atear": e. Private to "atirar": i.

"atear" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC  ·  "atirar" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • atearaetar · ataer · atearr · atera · attear · taear
  • atiraraitrar · atiarr · atirarr · atirra · atirrar · attirar · tairar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "atear" for "atirar" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.ˈtjaɾ/ versus /ɐ.ti.ˈɾaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "atear" vs "atirar" - which ranks higher?
"atirar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,264 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.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "atear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "atirar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #21,091 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "atear" and "atirar" 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 #21,091 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