abidevsalineConfusable pair

Which to use

“abide” and “aline” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#13,084
“abide” frequency rank
#48,052
“aline” frequency rank
61136
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature abide aline
Definition To endure without yielding; to withstand. Alternative form of align.

Where the eye mixes abide and aline

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. abide and aline follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
abide
5 ch
aline

Look-alike desk: abide vs aline

A purely visual mix-up. abide (/əˈbaɪd/) and aline (/əˈlaɪn/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61136, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

abide is recorded at frequency rank #13,084, classified as averb, pronounced /əˈbaɪd/. aline is at rank #48,052, tagged as averb, pronounced /əˈlaɪn/.

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 61136, this pair ranks #95,993 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of abide vs aline

Shared letters: aei. Private to "abide": bd. Private to "aline": ln.

"abide" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "aline" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • abide ← abbide · abdie · abidde · abied · aibde · baide
  • aline ← ailne · alinne · alline · alnie · laine

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "abide" for "aline" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/əˈbaɪd/ versus /əˈlaɪn/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "abide" vs "aline" - which ranks higher?
"abide" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,084 in our English list, against #48,052 for "aline". 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 "abide" and "aline" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "abide" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aline" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #95,993 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "abide" and "aline" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aline vs Alun". 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 #95,993 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