ahvsalcConfusable pair

Quick tell: ah is a intj, alc is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ah” is an intj and “alc” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,325
“ah” frequency rank
#49,757
“alc” frequency rank
52082
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ah alc
Definition An expression of relief, relaxation, comfort, confusion, understanding, wonder, awe, etc. according to uttered inflection. Abbreviation of alcohol.

Letter map: ah vs alc

Shared letters muted; letters that set ah and alc apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch
ah
3 ch
alc

Part-of-speech tell for ah / alc

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ah is anintj and alcanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52082, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ah is recorded at frequency rank #2,325, classified as anintj, pronounced /ɑː/. alc is at rank #49,757, tagged as anoun.

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 52082, this pair ranks #159,986 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ah vs alc

Shared letters: a. Private to "ah": h. Private to "alc": cl.

"ah" · 2 letters · shape VC  ·  "alc" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ah" for "alc" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ah" is an intj and "alc" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ah" or "alc"?
"ah" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,325 in our English list, against #49,757 for "alc". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "ah" vs "alc" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ah" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "alc" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #159,986 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ah" and "alc" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alc vs amb". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #159,986 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