apartvsavertTell them apart

Quick tell: apart is a adverb, avert is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“apart” is an adverb and “avert” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,711
“apart” frequency rank
#24,090
“avert” frequency rank
25801
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature apart avert
Definition Placed separately (in regard to space or time). To turn aside or away.

Where the eye mixes apart and avert

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
apart
5 ch
avert

Look-alike desk: apart vs avert

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: apart is /əˈpɑːt/ while avert is /əˈvɝt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25801, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

apart is recorded at frequency rank #1,711, classified as anadv, pronounced /əˈpɑːt/. avert is at rank #24,090, tagged as averb, pronounced /əˈvɝt/.

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 25801, this pair ranks #391,496 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of apart vs avert

Shared letters: art. Private to "apart": p. Private to "avert": ev.

"apart" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC  ·  "avert" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • apartaaprt · aparrt · apartt · apatr · appart · aprat · paart
  • avertaevrt · averrt · avertt · avetr · avret · avvert · vaert

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "apart" for "avert" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "apart" is an adverb and "avert" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "apart" vs "avert" - which ranks higher?
"apart" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,711 in our English list, against #24,090 for "avert". 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 "apart" and "avert" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "apart" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "avert" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #391,496 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "apart" and "avert" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "adverb vs avert". 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 #391,496 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