AtomvsatumWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#34,578
“Atom” frequency rank
#16,684
“atum” frequency rank
51262
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Atom atum
Definition átomo. peixe da família dos Escombrídeos muito usado na alimentação quer em fresco, quer em conserva

Where the eye mixes Atom and atum

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Atom
4 ch
atum

Look-alike desk: Atom vs atum

A purely visual mix-up. Atom ([a'toːm], Plural: [a'toːmə].) and atum (/ɐ.ˈtũ/) 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 - o in “Atom” becomes u in “atum”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51262, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Atom is recorded at frequency rank #34,578, classified as anoun, pronounced [a'toːm], Plural: [a'toːmə].. atum is at rank #16,684, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.ˈtũ/.

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 51262, this pair ranks #13,746 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Atom vs atum

Shared letters: amt. Private to "Atom": o. Private to "atum": u.

"Atom" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "atum" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Atomaotm · atmo · atomm · attom · taom
  • atumatmu · attum · atumm · autm · taum

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Atom" for "atum" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([a'toːm], Plural: [a'toːmə]. versus /ɐ.ˈtũ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Atom" vs "atum" - which ranks higher?
"atum" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,684 in our Portuguese list, against #34,578 for "Atom". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Atom" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "atum" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #13,746 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Atom" and "atum" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Atom vs atroz". 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 #13,746 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