Which to use
“APL” is a noun and “apply” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #48,593
- “APL” frequency rank
- #1,624
- “apply” frequency rank
- 50217
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | APL | apply |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Initialism of acute promyelocytic leukemia. | To lay or place; to put (one thing to another) |
Letter map: APL vs apply
Shared letters muted; letters that set APL and apply apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.
Part-of-speech tell for APL / apply
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: APL is anoun and applyaverb. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50217, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
APL is recorded at frequency rank #48,593, classified as anoun. apply is at rank #1,624, tagged as averb, pronounced /əˈplaɪ/.
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 50217, this pair ranks #176,259 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of APL vs apply
Shared letters: alp. Private to "APL": -. Private to "apply": y.
"APL" · 3 letters · shape VCC · "apply" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- apply ← aplpy · aply · applly · applyy · appyl · paply
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "APL" for "apply" ever safe?
Frequency check: "APL" vs "apply" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
You've compared "APL" and "apply". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "APL" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "apply" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #176,259 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "APL" and "apply" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "amb vs APL". 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 #176,259 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.