atirarvsaturarTell them apart

Which to use

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

#6,264
“atirar” frequency rank
#21,370
“aturar” frequency rank
27634
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature atirar aturar
Definition lançar um projétil contra um alvo ou pessoa suportar

Where the eye mixes atirar and aturar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. atirar and aturar follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
atirar
6 ch
aturar

Why the eye confuses atirar with aturar

A purely visual mix-up. atirar (/ɐ.ti.ˈɾaɾ/) and aturar (/ɐ.tu.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 a single letter - i in “atirar” becomes u in “aturar”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27634, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

atirar is recorded at frequency rank #6,264, classified as averb, pronounced /ɐ.ti.ˈɾaɾ/. aturar is at rank #21,370, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐ.tu.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 27634, this pair ranks #41,317 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of atirar vs aturar

Shared letters: art. Private to "atirar": i. Private to "aturar": u.

"atirar" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC  ·  "aturar" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • atirar ← aitrar · atiarr · atirarr · atirra · atirrar · attirar · tairar
  • aturar ← atruar · atturar · aturarr · aturra · aturrar · autrar · taurar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "atirar" and "aturar" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.ti.ˈɾaɾ/ versus /ɐ.tu.ˈɾaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "atirar" vs "aturar" - which ranks higher?
"atirar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,264 in our Portuguese list, against #21,370 for "aturar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "atirar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aturar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #41,317 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "atirar" and "aturar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "atar vs aturar". 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 #41,317 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