Which to use
“ah” is an onomatopoeia and “az” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #396
- “ah” frequency rank
- #23,772
- “az” frequency rank
- 24168
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ah | az |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Cri d’horreur ou d’effroi, en particulier lors d’une chute. | Première lettre de l’alphabet glagolitique, Ⰰ. |
Where the eye mixes ah and az
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Why the eye confuses ah with az
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ah is \aː\ while az is \az\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - h in “ah” becomes z in “az”, and the parts of speech differ too (onomatopoeia vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24168, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ah is recorded at frequency rank #396, classified as anonomatopoeia, pronounced \aː\. az is at rank #23,772, tagged as anoun, pronounced \az\.
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 24168, this pair ranks #348,184 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of ah vs az
Shared letters: a. Private to "ah": h. Private to "az": z.
"ah" · 2 letters · shape VC · "az" · 2 letters · shape VC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ah" for "az" ever safe?
Which is more common, "ah" or "az"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "ah" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "az" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #348,184 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ah" and "az" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aur vs az". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #348,184 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.