Which to use
“amiss” is an adjective and “avis” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #31,430
- “amiss” frequency rank
- #32,685
- “avis” frequency rank
- 64115
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | amiss | avis |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Wrong; faulty; out of order; improper or otherwise incorrect. | advice; opinion; deliberation. |
Letter map: amiss vs avis
Shared letters muted; letters that set amiss and avis apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. amiss runs 5 letters (VCVCC) against avis's 4 (VCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Part-of-speech tell for amiss / avis
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: amiss is anadjective and avisanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64115, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
amiss is recorded at frequency rank #31,430, classified as anadj, pronounced /əˈmɪs/. avis is at rank #32,685, tagged as anoun.
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 64115, this pair ranks #79,396 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of amiss vs avis
Shared letters: ais. Private to "amiss": m. Private to "avis": v.
"amiss" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC · "avis" · 4 letters · shape VCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "amiss" for "avis" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "amiss" or "avis" show up more?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "amiss" and "avis".
- Full dictionary entry for "amiss" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "avis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #79,396 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "amiss" and "avis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Advil vs avis". 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 #79,396 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.