Which to use
“aced” is a verb and “ahem” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #46,285
- “aced” frequency rank
- #20,828
- “ahem” frequency rank
- 67113
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | aced | ahem |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of ace | The sound of a quiet cough or of clearing one's throat. |
Where the eye mixes aced and ahem
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. aced and ahem follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: aced vs ahem
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: aced is /eɪst/ while ahem is /əˈhɛm/. 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 (verb vs intj), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67113, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
aced is recorded at frequency rank #46,285, classified as averb, pronounced /eɪst/. ahem is at rank #20,828, tagged as anintj, pronounced /əˈhɛm/.
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 67113, this pair ranks #64,864 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of aced vs ahem
Shared letters: ae. Private to "aced": cd. Private to "ahem": hm.
"aced" · 4 letters · shape VCVC · "ahem" · 4 letters · shape VCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "aced" and "ahem" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "aced" or "ahem"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "aced" and "ahem" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "aced" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ahem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #64,864 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "aced" and "ahem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aced vs ake". 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 #64,864 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.