Which to use
“august” is an adjective and “Augustus” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #822
- “august” frequency rank
- #16,408
- “Augustus” frequency rank
- 17230
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | august | Augustus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Awe-inspiring, majestic, noble, venerable. | The Roman emperor Augustus, also called Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (63 B.C.E. – 14 C.E.); heir to Julius Caesar |
Where the eye mixes august and Augustus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between august and Augustus
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: august is /ɔːˈɡʌst/ while Augustus is /ɔːˈɡʌstəs/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “august” sits inside “Augustus”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17230, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
august is recorded at frequency rank #822, classified as anadj, pronounced /ɔːˈɡʌst/. Augustus is at rank #16,408, tagged as aname, pronounced /ɔːˈɡʌstəs/.
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 17230, this pair ranks #452,776 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of august vs Augustus
Shared letters: agstu. Private to "august": -. Private to "Augustus": -.
"august" · 6 letters · shape VVCVCC · "Augustus" · 8 letters · shape VVCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "august" for "Augustus" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "august" or "Augustus" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "august" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Augustus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #452,776 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "august" and "Augustus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Augustin vs Augustus". 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 #452,776 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.