APL
"apl" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“APL” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #48,593) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #48,593
- frequency rank, English
- 3,931
- “A” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Initialism of acute promyelocytic leukemia.
Corpus desk
Index EN-apl · APL · English
APL · rank #48,593 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #48,593
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,931
- PHOTO-FINISH antipsychotic
Nearest frequency peer: antipsychotic (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbours of confusable “APL”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- annalise
annalise
51,411 corpus weight
- ANOVA
ANOVA
51,410 corpus weight
- antipsychot…
antipsychotic
51,409 corpus weight
- APL
APL
51,408 corpus weight
- apogee
apogee
51,407 corpus weight
- Arora
Arora
51,405 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “APL” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | APL |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #48,593 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “APL”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for APL is neighbouring look-alikes ("as", "at", …), not just typos; it is anoun. Frequency #48,593 among 3,931 “A” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for APL, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "as", "at", "aw", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: (computer language): From the book A Programming Language (1962). The correct English form is APL, spelled A-P-L.
Definition
- 1Initialism of acute promyelocytic leukemia.
- 2Initialism of assistant patrol leader.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how APL appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The disease that stood at the pivotal crossroads of oncology was yet another rare variant of leukemia called acute promyelocytic leukemia—APL.
Etymology
(computer language): From the book A Programming Language (1962).
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "APL", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).