at vs axe, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“at” and “axe” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,799
“at” frequency rank: #45,148
“axe” frequency rank: 46947
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	at	axe
Definition	großer Einhufer; Pferd	die Axt, das Beil

Where the eye mixes at and axe

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

2 ch

3 ch

axe

Why the eye confuses at with axe

A purely visual mix-up. at ([ɑt]) and axe ([æks]) 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 46947, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

at is recorded at frequency rank #1,799, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɑt]. axe is at rank #45,148, tagged as anoun, pronounced [æks].

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 46947, this pair ranks #1,301,503 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of at vs axe

Shared letters: a. Private to "at": t. Private to "axe": ex.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

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

No. They are said differently ([ɑt] versus [æks]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "at" or "axe"?

"at" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,799 in our German list, against #45,148 for "axe". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

Full dictionary entry for "at" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "axe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #1,301,503 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"at" and "axe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "AUD vs axe". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,301,503 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.