Which to use
“able” is an adjective and “alls” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #352
- “able” frequency rank
- #44,608
- “alls” frequency rank
- 44960
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | able | alls |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having the necessary powers or the needed resources to accomplish a task. | All. |
Where the eye mixes able and alls
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses able with alls
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: able is /ˈeɪ.bl̩/ while alls is /ɔːlz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44960, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
able is recorded at frequency rank #352, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈeɪ.bl̩/. alls is at rank #44,608, tagged as adet, pronounced /ɔːlz/.
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 44960, this pair ranks #225,729 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of able vs alls
Shared letters: al. Private to "able": be. Private to "alls": s.
"able" · 4 letters · shape VCCV · "alls" · 4 letters · shape VCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "able" and "alls" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "able" or "alls" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "able" and "alls" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "able" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "alls" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #225,729 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "able" and "alls" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "algo vs alls". 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 #225,729 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.