atrairvsatuarWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#4,205
“atrair” frequency rank
#4,207
“atuar” frequency rank
8412
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature atrair atuar
Definition puxar para usando de charme, persuasão, etc exercer ação

Where the eye mixes atrair and atuar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. atrair runs 6 letters (VCCVVC) against atuar's 5 (VCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
atrair
5 ch
atuar

Look-alike desk: atrair vs atuar

A purely visual mix-up. atrair (/ɐ.tɾɐ.ˈiɾ/) and atuar (/ɐ.ˈtwaɾ/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8412, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

atrair is recorded at frequency rank #4,205, classified as averb, pronounced /ɐ.tɾɐ.ˈiɾ/. atuar is at rank #4,207, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɐ.ˈtwaɾ/.

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 8412, this pair ranks #65,371 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of atrair vs atuar

Shared letters: art. Private to "atrair": i. Private to "atuar": u.

"atrair" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC  ·  "atuar" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • atrair ← artair · atarir · atrairr · atrari · atriar · atrrair · attrair · tarair
  • atuar ← ataur · attuar · atuarr · atura · autar · tauar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "atrair" for "atuar" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.tɾɐ.ˈiɾ/ versus /ɐ.ˈtwaɾ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "atrair" or "atuar"?
"atrair" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,205 in our Portuguese list, against #4,207 for "atuar". 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 "atrair" and "atuar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "atrair" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "atuar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #65,371 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "atrair" and "atuar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "atar vs atuar". 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 #65,371 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