agilevsAilesWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: agile is a adjective, Ailes is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“agile” is an adjective and “Ailes” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#16,839
“agile” frequency rank
#44,045
“Ailes” frequency rank
60884
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature agile Ailes
Definition Having the faculty of quick motion in the limbs; apt or ready to move; loose-jointed. A surname.

Letter map: agile vs Ailes

Shared letters muted; letters that set agile and Ailes apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. agile (VCVCV) and Ailes (VVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
agile
5 ch
Ailes

Grammar separator: agile vs Ailes

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: agile is anadjective and Ailesaname. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60884, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

agile is recorded at frequency rank #16,839, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈæd͡ʒ.aɪl/. Ailes is at rank #44,045, tagged as aname.

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 60884, this pair ranks #97,573 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of agile vs Ailes

Shared letters: aeil. Private to "agile": g. Private to "Ailes": s.

"agile" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "Ailes" · 5 letters · shape VVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • agile ← aggile · agiel · agille · aglie · aigle · gaile
  • Ailes ← aiels · ailess · ailles · iales

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "agile" and "Ailes" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "agile" is an adjective and "Ailes" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "agile" or "Ailes"?
"agile" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,839 in our English list, against #44,045 for "Ailes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "agile" vs "Ailes" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "agile" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Ailes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #97,573 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "agile" and "Ailes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "abides vs Ailes". 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 #97,573 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