atervsaterroConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#39,000
“ater” frequency rank
#15,022
“aterro” frequency rank
54022
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ater aterro
Definition não permitir que tenha seguimento; impedir que prossiga ação ou efeito de aterrar

Letter map: ater vs aterro

Shared letters muted; letters that set ater and aterro apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

4 ch
ater
6 ch
aterro

Role in the sentence - ater and aterro

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ater is averb and aterroanoun. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “ater” sits inside “aterro”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54022, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ater is recorded at frequency rank #39,000, classified as averb. 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 54022, this pair ranks #11,610 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ater vs aterro

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

"ater" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "aterro" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ateraetr · aterr · atter
  • aterroaetrro · atero · ateror · atrero · atterro · taerro

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ater" and "aterro" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ater" is a verb and "aterro" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ater" or "aterro"?
"aterro" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,022 in our Portuguese list, against #39,000 for "ater". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "ater" and "aterro". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ater" 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 #11,610 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ater" and "aterro" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "atar vs ater". 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 #11,610 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