antennaevsantennasWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“antennae” and “antennas” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#28,452
“antennae” frequency rank
#20,287
“antennas” frequency rank
48739
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature antennae antennas
Definition plural of antenna plural of antenna

Where the eye mixes antennae and antennas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

8 ch
antennae
8 ch
antennas

Visual trap between antennae and antennas

A purely visual mix-up. antennae (/ænˈtɛni/) and antennas (/ænˈtɛnəz/) 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 - e in “antennae” becomes s in “antennas”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48739, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

antennae is recorded at frequency rank #28,452, classified as anoun, pronounced /ænˈtɛni/. antennas is at rank #20,287, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ænˈtɛnəz/.

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 48739, this pair ranks #190,200 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of antennae vs antennas

Shared letters: aent. Private to "antennae": -. Private to "antennas": s.

"antennae" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVV  ·  "antennas" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • antennaeanetnnae · anntennae · antenae · antenane · antennea · antnenae · anttennae · atnennae
  • antennasanetnnas · anntennas · antenans · antenas · antennass · antennsa · antnenas · anttennas

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "antennae" and "antennas" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ænˈtɛni/ versus /ænˈtɛnəz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "antennae" vs "antennas" - which ranks higher?
"antennas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,287 in our English list, against #28,452 for "antennae". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "antennae" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "antennas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #190,200 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "antennae" and "antennas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "antenna vs antennae". 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 #190,200 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list