Which to use
“ad” and “at” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,098
- “ad” frequency rank
- #4,122
- “at” frequency rank
- 9220
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ad | at |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pub, publicité ; réclame. | 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 ad and at
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Why the eye confuses ad with at
A purely visual mix-up. ad (\æd\) 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 - d in “ad” becomes t in “at”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9220, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ad is recorded at frequency rank #5,098, classified as anoun, pronounced \æd\. 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 9220, this pair ranks #417,407 of 440,172 scored French 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?
Frequency check: "ad" vs "at" - which ranks higher?
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 #417,407 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ad" and "at" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ad vs aur". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #417,407 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.