Which to use
“amiable” and “amicable” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #35,181
- “amiable” frequency rank
- #29,906
- “amicable” frequency rank
- 65087
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | amiable | amicable |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Friendly; kind; sweet; gracious | Showing friendliness or goodwill. |
Where the eye mixes amiable and amicable
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses amiable with amicable
A purely visual mix-up. amiable (/ˈeɪ.mi.ə.bəl/) and amicable (/ˈæ.mɪ.kə.bəl/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65087, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
amiable is recorded at frequency rank #35,181, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈeɪ.mi.ə.bəl/. amicable is at rank #29,906, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈæ.mɪ.kə.bəl/.
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 65087, this pair ranks #74,490 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of amiable vs amicable
Shared letters: abeilm. Private to "amiable": -. Private to "amicable": c.
"amiable" · 7 letters · shape VCVVCCV · "amicable" · 8 letters · shape VCVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "amiable" for "amicable" ever safe?
Frequency check: "amiable" vs "amicable" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "amiable" and "amicable" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "amiable" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "amicable" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #74,490 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "amiable" and "amicable" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "affable vs amiable". 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 #74,490 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.