atervsatoWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#39,000
“ater” frequency rank
#1,326
“ato” frequency rank
40326
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ater ato
Definition não permitir que tenha seguimento; impedir que prossiga processo de fazer algo; manifestação real e tangível

Letter map: ater vs ato

Shared letters muted; letters that set ater and ato apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
ater
3 ch
ato

Grammar separator: ater vs ato

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ater is averb and atoanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40326, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ater is recorded at frequency rank #39,000, classified as averb. ato is at rank #1,326, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈato/ ou /ˈatu/_(plural:) /ˈatos/, /ˈatus/ ou /ˈatuʃ/.

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 40326, this pair ranks #25,799 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ater vs ato

Shared letters: at. Private to "ater": er. Private to "ato": o.

"ater" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "ato" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ateraetr · aterr · atter

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ater" for "ato" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ater" is a verb and "ato" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ater" vs "ato" - which ranks higher?
"ato" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,326 in our Portuguese list, against #39,000 for "ater". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ater" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ato" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #25,799 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ater" and "ato" 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 #25,799 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