apovsateWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#44,553
“apo” frequency rank
#23,677
“ate” frequency rank
68230
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature apo ate
Definition Tarea. Dulce de membrillo en forma de barra o bloque a modo de dulce seco.

Where the eye mixes apo and ate

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

3 ch
apo
3 ch
ate

Visual trap between apo and ate

A purely visual mix-up. apo (/aˈpo/) and ate ([ˈat̪e]) 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 68230, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

apo is recorded at frequency rank #44,553, classified as anoun, pronounced /aˈpo/. ate is at rank #23,677, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈat̪e].

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 68230, this pair ranks #35,054 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of apo vs ate

Shared letters: a. Private to "apo": op. Private to "ate": et.

"apo" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "ate" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "apo" for "ate" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/aˈpo/ versus [ˈat̪e]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "apo" or "ate" show up more?
"ate" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,677 in our Spanish list, against #44,553 for "apo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "apo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ate" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #35,054 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "apo" and "ate" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "apis vs apo". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #35,054 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