Which to use
“apes” and “apnea” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,951
- “apes” frequency rank
- #28,817
- “apnea” frequency rank
- 44768
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | apes | apnea |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of ape | The cessation of breathing, most often in reference to transient instances thereof during sleep. |
Where the eye mixes apes and apnea
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. apes runs 4 letters (VCVC) against apnea's 5 (VCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between apes and apnea
A purely visual mix-up. apes (/eɪps/) and apnea (/ˈæp.ni.ə/) 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 44768, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
apes is recorded at frequency rank #15,951, classified as anoun, pronounced /eɪps/. apnea is at rank #28,817, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈæp.ni.ə/.
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 44768, this pair ranks #227,525 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of apes vs apnea
Shared letters: aep. Private to "apes": s. Private to "apnea": n.
"apes" · 4 letters · shape VCVC · "apnea" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "apes" for "apnea" ever safe?
Which is more common, "apes" or "apnea"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "apes" and "apnea" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "apes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "apnea" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #227,525 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "apes" and "apnea" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Aeneas vs apnea". 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 #227,525 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.