Which to use
“along” and “among” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #410
- “along” frequency rank
- #486
- “among” frequency rank
- 896
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | along | among |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | By the length of; in a line with the length of; lengthwise next to. | Of a person or thing: in the midst of and surrounded by (other people or things). |
Where the eye mixes along and among
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. along (/əˈlɒŋ/) and among (/əˈmʌŋ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - l in “along” becomes m in “among”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 896, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
along is recorded at frequency rank #410, classified as aprep, pronounced /əˈlɒŋ/. among is at rank #486, tagged as aprep, pronounced /əˈmʌŋ/.
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 896, this pair ranks #528,547 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of along vs among
Shared letters: agno. Private to "along": l. Private to "among": m.
"along" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC · "among" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC