Which to use
“alls” is a determiner and “alum” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #44,608
- “alls” frequency rank
- #20,832
- “alum” frequency rank
- 65440
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | alls | alum |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | All. | An astringent salt, usually occurring in the form of pale crystals, much used in the dyeing and tanning trade and in certain medicines, and now understood to be a double sulphate of potassium and aluminium (K₂SO₄·Al₂(SO₄)₃·24H₂O). |
Where the eye mixes alls and alum
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. alls (VCCC) and alum (VCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: alls vs alum
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: alls is /ɔːlz/ while alum is /ˈæl.əm/. 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 (determiner vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65440, 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/. alum is at rank #20,832, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈæl.əm/.
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 65440, this pair ranks #72,737 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of alls vs alum
Shared letters: al. Private to "alls": s. Private to "alum": mu.
"alls" · 4 letters · shape VCCC · "alum" · 4 letters · shape VCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "alls" and "alum" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "alls" or "alum" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "alls" and "alum" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "alls" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "alum" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #72,737 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "alls" and "alum" 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 #72,737 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.