Which to use
“ability” and “agility” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,156
- “ability” frequency rank
- #18,751
- “agility” frequency rank
- 19907
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ability | agility |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Suitableness. | The quality of being agile; the power of moving the limbs quickly and easily; quickness of motion |
Where the eye mixes ability and agility
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses ability with agility
A purely visual mix-up. ability (/əˈbɪl.ə.ti/) and agility (/əˈd͡ʒɪl.ɪ.ti/) 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 a single letter - b in “ability” becomes g in “agility”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19907, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ability is recorded at frequency rank #1,156, classified as anoun, pronounced /əˈbɪl.ə.ti/. agility is at rank #18,751, tagged as anoun, pronounced /əˈd͡ʒɪl.ɪ.ti/.
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 19907, this pair ranks #434,879 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of ability vs agility
Shared letters: ailty. Private to "ability": b. Private to "agility": g.
"ability" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVCV · "agility" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "ability" and "agility" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "ability" or "agility"?
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 "ability" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "agility" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #434,879 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ability" and "agility" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acidity vs agility". 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 #434,879 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.