abvsatConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#9,951
“ab” frequency rank
#4,122
“at” frequency rank
14073
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ab at
Definition ou (académique) Onzième mois du calendrier hébreu. Ancien nom de l’attier, qui a peut-être été importé à la Réunion par les Malbars et les Tamouls ; ce nom était particulièrement fréquent au Sénégal.

Where the eye mixes ab and at

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

2 ch
ab
2 ch
at

Look-alike desk: ab vs at

A purely visual mix-up. ab (\av\) and at (\at\) 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 - b in “ab” becomes t in “at”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14073, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ab is recorded at frequency rank #9,951, classified as anoun, pronounced \av\. at is at rank #4,122, tagged as anoun, pronounced \at\.

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 14073, this pair ranks #398,313 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ab vs at

Shared letters: a. Private to "ab": b. Private to "at": t.

"ab" · 2 letters · shape VC  ·  "at" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ab" and "at" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\av\ versus \at\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "ab" vs "at" - which ranks higher?
"at" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,122 in our French list, against #9,951 for "ab". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ab" 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 #398,313 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ab" and "at" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ab vs aur". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #398,313 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list