acervsapeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#24,367
“acer” frequency rank
#15,334
“ape” frequency rank
39701
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acer ape
Definition A plant of the genus Acer; a maple. A primate of the superfamily Hominoidea, generally larger than monkeys and distinguished from them by having no tail.

Where the eye mixes acer and ape

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
acer
3 ch
ape

Look-alike desk: acer vs ape

A purely visual mix-up. acer (/ˈeɪsə/) and ape (/eɪp/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39701, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

acer is recorded at frequency rank #24,367, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈeɪsə/. ape is at rank #15,334, tagged as anoun, pronounced /eɪp/.

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 39701, this pair ranks #274,339 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of acer vs ape

Shared letters: ae. Private to "acer": cr. Private to "ape": p.

"acer" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "ape" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aceraccer · acerr · aecr

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "acer" and "ape" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈeɪsə/ versus /eɪp/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "acer" or "ape"?
"ape" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,334 in our English list, against #24,367 for "acer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "acer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ape" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #274,339 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "acer" and "ape" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acer vs ajar". 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 #274,339 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