AdelevsampleWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Adele is a name, ample is a determiner, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Adele” is a name and “ample” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,947
“Adele” frequency rank
#10,978
“ample” frequency rank
26925
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Adele ample
Definition A female given name from the Germanic languages. A fully sufficient or abundant quantity of; enough or more than enough.

Where the eye mixes Adele and ample

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Adele
5 ch
ample

Why the eye confuses Adele with ample

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Adele is /əˈdɛl/ while ample is /ˈæm.pəl/. 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 (name vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26925, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Adele is recorded at frequency rank #15,947, classified as aname, pronounced /əˈdɛl/. ample is at rank #10,978, tagged as adet, pronounced /ˈæm.pəl/.

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 26925, this pair ranks #383,003 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Adele vs ample

Shared letters: ael. Private to "Adele": d. Private to "ample": mp.

"Adele" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "ample" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Adeleaddele · adeel · adelle · adlee · aedle · daele
  • ampleamlpe · ammple · ampel · amplle · ampple · apmle

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Adele" and "ample" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Adele" is a name and "ample" a determiner, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Adele" or "ample"?
"ample" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,978 in our English list, against #15,947 for "Adele". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Adele" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ample" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #383,003 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Adele" and "ample" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "addled vs Adele". 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 #383,003 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