atracarvsatrasarWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#36,757
“atracar” frequency rank
#10,137
“atrasar” frequency rank
46894
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature atracar atrasar
Definition amarrar induzir a demora ou o adiamento de algo

Where the eye mixes atracar and atrasar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. atracar and atrasar follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
atracar
7 ch
atrasar

Look-alike desk: atracar vs atrasar

A purely visual mix-up. atracar (/ɐ.tɾɐ.ˈkaɾ/) and atrasar (/a.tɾaˈza(ʁ)/) 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 - c in “atracar” becomes s in “atrasar”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46894, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

atracar is recorded at frequency rank #36,757, classified as averb, pronounced /ɐ.tɾɐ.ˈkaɾ/. atrasar is at rank #10,137, tagged as averb, pronounced /a.tɾaˈza(ʁ)/.

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 46894, this pair ranks #18,407 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of atracar vs atrasar

Shared letters: art. Private to "atracar": c. Private to "atrasar": s.

"atracar" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC  ·  "atrasar" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • atracarartacar · atarcar · atraacr · atracarr · atraccar · atracra · atrcaar · atrracar
  • atrasarartasar · atarsar · atraasr · atrasarr · atrasra · atrassar · atrrasar · atrsaar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "atracar" and "atrasar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.tɾɐ.ˈkaɾ/ versus /a.tɾaˈza(ʁ)/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "atracar" or "atrasar" show up more?
"atrasar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,137 in our Portuguese list, against #36,757 for "atracar". 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 "atracar" and "atrasar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "atracar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "atrasar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #18,407 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "atracar" and "atrasar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aplacar vs atracar". 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 #18,407 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