agavsagapeTell them apart

Quick tell: aga is a noun, agape is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“aga” is a noun and “agape” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#25,990
“aga” frequency rank
#44,043
“agape” frequency rank
70033
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aga agape
Definition Alternative spelling of agha. In a state of astonishment, wonder, expectation, or eager attention; as with mouth hanging open.

Letter map: aga vs agape

Shared letters muted; letters that set aga and agape apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. aga runs 3 letters (VCV) against agape's 5 (VCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
aga
5 ch
agape

Role in the sentence - aga and agape

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: aga is anoun and agapeanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “aga” sits inside “agape”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70033, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aga is recorded at frequency rank #25,990, classified as anoun. agape is at rank #44,043, tagged as anadj, pronounced /əˈɡeɪp/.

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 70033, this pair ranks #52,194 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of aga vs agape

Shared letters: ag. Private to "aga": -. Private to "agape": ep.

"aga" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "agape" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • agape ← aagpe · agaep · agappe · aggape · agpae · gaape

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "aga" for "agape" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "aga" is a noun and "agape" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "aga" vs "agape" - which ranks higher?
"aga" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,990 in our English list, against #44,043 for "agape". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "aga" and "agape". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "aga" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "agape" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #52,194 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aga" and "agape" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "abate vs agape". 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 #52,194 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