agilvsaniWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: agil is a adjective, ani is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“agil” is an adjective and “ani” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,992
“agil” frequency rank
#36,175
“ani” frequency rank
79167
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature agil ani
Definition große körperliche oder geistige Beweglichkeit zeigend; aktiv auf Veränderungen reagierend Plural des Substantivs ano

Where the eye mixes agil and ani

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
agil
3 ch
ani

Why the eye confuses agil with ani

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: agil is [aˈɡiːl] while ani is [ˈaːni]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79167, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

agil is recorded at frequency rank #42,992, classified as anadj, pronounced [aˈɡiːl]. ani is at rank #36,175, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈaːni].

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 79167, this pair ranks #222,403 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of agil vs ani

Shared letters: ai. Private to "agil": gl. Private to "ani": n.

"agil" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "ani" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • agilaggil · agill · agli · aigl

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "agil" for "ani" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "agil" is an adjective and "ani" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "agil" vs "ani" - which ranks higher?
"ani" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,175 in our German list, against #42,992 for "agil". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "agil" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ani" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #222,403 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "agil" and "ani" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "agil vs avis". 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 #222,403 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list