amievsAPIWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,762
“amie” frequency rank
#18,115
“API” frequency rank
19877
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature amie API
Definition Femme avec qui on est lié d’amitié. Alphabet phonétique international.

Where the eye mixes amie and API

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
amie
3 ch
API

Look-alike desk: amie vs API

A purely visual mix-up. amie (\a.mi\) and API (\a.pi\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19877, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

amie is recorded at frequency rank #1,762, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.mi\. API is at rank #18,115, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.pi\.

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 19877, this pair ranks #371,087 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of amie vs API

Shared letters: ai. Private to "amie": em. Private to "API": p.

"amie" · 4 letters · shape VCVV  ·  "API" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • amieamei · ammie · maie

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "amie" for "API" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\a.mi\ versus \a.pi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "amie" vs "API" - which ranks higher?
"amie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,762 in our French list, against #18,115 for "API". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "amie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "API" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #371,087 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "amie" and "API" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "API vs aur". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #371,087 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