Which to use
“alarm” and “album” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,426
- “alarm” frequency rank
- #1,010
- “album” frequency rank
- 5436
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | alarm | album |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A summons to arms, as on the approach of an enemy. | In Ancient Rome, a white tablet or register on which the praetor's edicts and other public notices were recorded. |
Where the eye mixes alarm and album
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. alarm (VCVCC) and album (VCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: alarm vs album
A purely visual mix-up. alarm (/əˈlɑːm/) and album (/ˈælbəm/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5436, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
alarm is recorded at frequency rank #4,426, classified as anoun, pronounced /əˈlɑːm/. album is at rank #1,010, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈælbəm/.
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 5436, this pair ranks #515,334 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of alarm vs album
Shared letters: alm. Private to "alarm": r. Private to "album": bu.
"alarm" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC · "album" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "alarm" for "album" ever safe?
Which is more common, "alarm" or "album"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "alarm" and "album" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "alarm" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "album" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #515,334 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "alarm" and "album" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alarm vs Amari". 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 #515,334 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.