allsvsaltConfusable pair

Quick tell: alls is a determiner, alt is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“alls” is a determiner and “alt” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,608
“alls” frequency rank
#9,434
“alt” frequency rank
54042
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature alls alt
Definition All. Of a voice or instrument, high pitch; especially, the octave above the top line of the treble stave.

Where the eye mixes alls and alt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
alls
3 ch
alt

Visual trap between alls and alt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: alls is /ɔːlz/ while alt is /ɔːlt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (determiner vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54042, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

alls is recorded at frequency rank #44,608, classified as adet, pronounced /ɔːlz/. alt is at rank #9,434, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɔːlt/.

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 54042, this pair ranks #144,186 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of alls vs alt

Shared letters: al. Private to "alls": s. Private to "alt": t.

"alls" · 4 letters · shape VCCC  ·  "alt" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • allsallss · alsl · lals

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "alls" and "alt" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "alls" is a determiner and "alt" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "alls" or "alt"?
"alt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,434 in our English list, against #44,608 for "alls". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "alls" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "alt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #144,186 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "alls" and "alt" 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 #144,186 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