advsatWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“ad” and “at” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#5,365
“ad” frequency rank
#4,857
“at” frequency rank
10222
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ad at
Definition Nombre. Símbolo tipográfico (@) muy utilizado en informática e internet, en particular como parte de las direcciones de correo electrónico.

Where the eye mixes ad and at

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

2 ch
ad
2 ch
at

Why the eye confuses ad with at

A purely visual mix-up. ad ([ɑd]) and at ([ˈat̪]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - d in “ad” becomes t in “at”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10222, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ad is recorded at frequency rank #5,365, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɑd]. at is at rank #4,857, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈat̪].

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 10222, this pair ranks #299,404 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ad vs at

Shared letters: a. Private to "ad": d. Private to "at": t.

"ad" · 2 letters · shape VC  ·  "at" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ad" and "at" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ɑd] versus [ˈat̪]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "ad" vs "at" - which ranks higher?
"at" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,857 in our Spanish list, against #5,365 for "ad". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "ad" and "at" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ad" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "at" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #299,404 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ad" and "at" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "anta vs at". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #299,404 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list