AAvsavWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: AA is a noun, av is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“AA” is a noun and “av” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,979
“AA” frequency rank
#12,373
“av” frequency rank
19352
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature AA av
Definition A member of Alcoholics Anonymous. have

Letter map: AA vs av

Shared letters muted; letters that set AA and av apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch
AA
2 ch
av

Grammar separator: AA vs av

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: AA is anoun and avaverb. On the page they differ by a single letter - a in “AA” becomes v in “av”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19352, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

AA is recorded at frequency rank #6,979, classified as anoun. av is at rank #12,373, tagged as averb.

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 19352, this pair ranks #438,765 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of AA vs av

Shared letters: a. Private to "AA": -. Private to "av": v.

"AA" · 2 letters · shape VV  ·  "av" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "AA" for "av" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "AA" is a noun and "av" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "AA" or "av"?
"AA" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,979 in our English list, against #12,373 for "av". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "AA" vs "av" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "AA" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "av" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #438,765 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "AA" and "av" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "amb vs av". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #438,765 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list