AdevsañoTell them apart

Quick tell: Ade is a name, año is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Ade” is a name and “año” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,619
“Ade” frequency rank
#100
“año” frequency rank
31719
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Ade año
Definition Apellido. Intervalo de tiempo que tarda la Tierra en hacer una revolución alrededor del Sol. El año se compone de 365 días y cuarto aproximadamente. Por eso cada cuatro años el año civil tiene un día más.

Where the eye mixes Ade and año

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

3 ch
Ade
3 ch
año

Look-alike desk: Ade vs año

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Ade is [ˈað̞e] while año is [ˈaɲo]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31719, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Ade is recorded at frequency rank #31,619, classified as aname, pronounced [ˈað̞e]. año is at rank #100, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈaɲo].

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 31719, this pair ranks #205,661 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Ade vs año

Shared letters: a. Private to "Ade": de. Private to "año": .

"Ade" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "año" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Ade" for "año" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Ade" is a name and "año" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Ade" or "año"?
"año" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #100 in our Spanish list, against #31,619 for "Ade". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Ade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "año" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #205,661 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Ade" and "año" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "abed vs Ade". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #205,661 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