Which to use
“Alan” is a name and “alls” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,275
- “Alan” frequency rank
- #44,608
- “alls” frequency rank
- 47883
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Alan | alls |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A male given name from the Celtic languages. | All. |
Where the eye mixes Alan and alls
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses Alan with alls
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Alan is /ˈæl.ən/ while alls is /ɔːlz/. 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 47883, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Alan is recorded at frequency rank #3,275, classified as aname, pronounced /ˈæl.ən/. alls is at rank #44,608, tagged as adet, pronounced /ɔːlz/.
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 47883, this pair ranks #198,282 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Alan vs alls
Shared letters: al. Private to "Alan": n. Private to "alls": s.
"Alan" · 4 letters · shape VCVC · "alls" · 4 letters · shape VCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Alan" for "alls" ever safe?
Frequency check: "Alan" vs "alls" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "Alan" and "alls" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "Alan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "alls" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #198,282 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Alan" and "alls" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "algo vs alls". 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 #198,282 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.