Ann vs at, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“Ann” is a name and “at” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,923
“Ann” frequency rank: #21
“at” frequency rank: 3944
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	Ann	at
Definition	A female given name from Hebrew.	In, near, or in the general vicinity of (a particular place).

Where the eye mixes Ann and at

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch

Ann

2 ch

Why the eye confuses Ann with at

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Ann is /æn/ while at is /æt/. 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 (name vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3944, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Ann is recorded at frequency rank #3,923, classified as aname, pronounced /æn/. at is at rank #21, tagged as aprep, pronounced /æt/.

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 3944, this pair ranks #520,491 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Ann vs at

Shared letters: a. Private to "Ann": n. Private to "at": t.

"Ann" · 3 letters · shape VCC · "at" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Ann" for "at" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Ann" is a name and "at" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "Ann" or "at"?

"at" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21 in our English list, against #3,923 for "Ann". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "Ann" and "at" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

Full dictionary entry for "Ann" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "at" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #520,491 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"Ann" and "at" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "amb vs Ann". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #520,491 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.