APL vs are, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“APL” is a noun and “are” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,593
“APL” frequency rank: #19
“are” frequency rank: 48612
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	APL	are
Definition	Initialism of acute promyelocytic leukemia.	second-person singular simple present of be

Letter map: APL vs are

Shared letters muted; letters that set APL and are apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch

APL

3 ch

are

Role in the sentence - APL and are

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: APL is anoun and areaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48612, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

APL is recorded at frequency rank #48,593, classified as anoun. are is at rank #19, tagged as averb, pronounced /ə(ɹ)/.

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 48612, this pair ranks #191,401 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of APL vs are

Shared letters: a. Private to "APL": lp. Private to "are": er.

"APL" · 3 letters · shape VCC · "are" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "APL" for "are" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "APL" is a noun and "are" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "APL" vs "are" - which ranks higher?

"are" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19 in our English list, against #48,593 for "APL". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "APL" and "are".

Full dictionary entry for "APL" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "are" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #191,401 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"APL" and "are" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "amb vs APL". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #191,401 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.