are vs AZ, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#19
“are” frequency rank: #11,504
“AZ” frequency rank: 11523
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	are	AZ
Definition	second-person singular simple present of be	Abbreviation of Arizona: a state of the United States.

Letter map: are vs AZ

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

3 ch

are

2 ch

Grammar separator: are vs AZ

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: are is averb and AZaname. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11523, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

are is recorded at frequency rank #19, classified as averb, pronounced /ə(ɹ)/. AZ is at rank #11,504, tagged as aname.

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 11523, this pair ranks #486,558 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of are vs AZ

Shared letters: a. Private to "are": er. Private to "AZ": z.

"are" · 3 letters · shape VCV · "AZ" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

In ordinary English text, does "are" or "AZ" show up more?

"are" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19 in our English list, against #11,504 for "AZ". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pair "are" vs "AZ" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "are" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "AZ" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #486,558 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"are" and "AZ" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "amb vs AZ". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #486,558 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.