APO vs at, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“APO” is an abbrev and “at” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,930
“APO” frequency rank: #1,799
“at” frequency rank: 33729
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	APO	at
Definition	außerparlamentarische Opposition	großer Einhufer; Pferd

Where the eye mixes APO and at

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch

APO

2 ch

Why the eye confuses APO with at

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: APO is [ˈaːpo] while at is [ɑt]. 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 (abbrev vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33729, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

APO is recorded at frequency rank #31,930, classified as anabbrev, pronounced [ˈaːpo]. at is at rank #1,799, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ɑt].

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 33729, this pair ranks #1,679,394 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of APO vs at

Shared letters: a. Private to "APO": op. Private to "at": t.

"APO" · 3 letters · shape VCV · "at" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "APO" and "at" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "APO" is an abbrev and "at" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary German text, does "APO" or "at" show up more?

"at" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,799 in our German list, against #31,930 for "APO". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

Full dictionary entry for "APO" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "at" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #1,679,394 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"APO" and "at" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "APO vs AUD". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,679,394 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.