Which to use
“ache” is a verb and “age” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #16,397
- “ache” frequency rank
- #475
- “age” frequency rank
- 16872
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ache | age |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To suffer pain; to be the source of, or be in, pain, especially continued dull pain; to be distressed. | The amount of time that some being has been alive, or that some thing has been in existence, as measured from its birth or origin until the present or until some other given reference point. (Often measured in number of years; alternatively in months, days, hours, etc.; see also the usage notes) |
Where the eye mixes ache and age
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ache is /ˈeɪk/ while age is /eɪd͡ʒ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16872, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ache is recorded at frequency rank #16,397, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈeɪk/. age is at rank #475, tagged as anoun, pronounced /eɪd͡ʒ/.
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 16872, this pair ranks #455,064 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of ache vs age
Shared letters: ae. Private to "ache": ch. Private to "age": g.
"ache" · 4 letters · shape VCCV · "age" · 3 letters · shape VCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- ache ← achhe · ahce · cahe