auditsvsawaitsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“audits” and “awaits” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#19,762
“audits” frequency rank
#13,860
“awaits” frequency rank
33622
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature audits awaits
Definition plural of audit plural of await

Where the eye mixes audits and awaits

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
audits
6 ch
awaits

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. audits (/ɔː.dɪts/) and awaits (/əˈweɪts/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33622, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

audits is recorded at frequency rank #19,762, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɔː.dɪts/. awaits is at rank #13,860, tagged as anoun, pronounced /əˈweɪts/.

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 33622, this pair ranks #327,838 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of audits vs awaits

Shared letters: aist. Private to "audits": du. Private to "awaits": w.

"audits" · 6 letters · shape VVCVCC  ·  "awaits" · 6 letters · shape VCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • auditsaduits · auddits · audist · auditss · auditts · audtis · auidts · uadits
  • awaitsaawits · awaist · awaitss · awaitts · awatis · awiats · awwaits · waaits

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "audits" and "awaits" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ɔː.dɪts/ versus /əˈweɪts/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "audits" or "awaits"?
"awaits" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,860 in our English list, against #19,762 for "audits". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list