akavsAsWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: aka is a adjective, As is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“aka” is an adjective and “As” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,102
“aka” frequency rank
#135
“As” frequency rank
13237
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aka As
Definition Relatif aux Aka (ou Akha), peuple de Birmanie. Commune de la province de Limbourg de la région flamande de Belgique.

Where the eye mixes aka and As

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

3 ch
aka
2 ch
As

Why the eye confuses aka with As

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: aka is \a.ka\ while As is \as\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13237, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aka is recorded at frequency rank #13,102, classified as anadj, pronounced \a.ka\. As is at rank #135, tagged as aname, pronounced \as\.

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 13237, this pair ranks #401,845 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of aka vs As

Shared letters: a. Private to "aka": k. Private to "As": s.

"aka" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "As" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "aka" for "As" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "aka" is an adjective and "As" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "aka" vs "As" - which ranks higher?
"As" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #135 in our French list, against #13,102 for "aka". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "aka" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "As" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #401,845 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aka" and "As" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aka vs aur". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #401,845 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