atearvsatrairWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#38,140
“atear” frequency rank
#4,205
“atrair” frequency rank
42345
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature atear atrair
Definition lançar fogo a puxar para usando de charme, persuasão, etc

Where the eye mixes atear and atrair

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

5 ch
atear
6 ch
atrair

Visual trap between atear and atrair

A purely visual mix-up. atear (/ɐ.ˈtjaɾ/) and atrair (/ɐ.tɾɐ.ˈiɾ/) 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 42345, 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/. atrair is at rank #4,205, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐ.tɾɐ.ˈiɾ/.

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 42345, this pair ranks #23,440 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of atear vs atrair

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

"atear" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC  ·  "atrair" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • atear ← aetar · ataer · atearr · atera · attear · taear
  • atrair ← artair · atarir · atrairr · atrari · atriar · atrrair · attrair · tarair

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "atear" for "atrair" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.ˈtjaɾ/ versus /ɐ.tɾɐ.ˈiɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "atear" or "atrair"?
"atrair" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,205 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

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "atear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "atrair" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #23,440 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "atear" and "atrair" 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 #23,440 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