antivsanusTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,105
“anti” frequency rank
#12,304
“anus” frequency rank
13409
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature anti anus
Definition Personne opposée ou hostile à un projet. Orifice du rectum par lequel se termine l’intestin.

Where the eye mixes anti and anus

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

4 ch
anti
4 ch
anus

Look-alike desk: anti vs anus

A purely visual mix-up. anti (\ɑ̃.ti\) and anus (\a.nys\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13409, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

anti is recorded at frequency rank #1,105, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.ti\. anus is at rank #12,304, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.nys\.

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 13409, this pair ranks #401,142 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of anti vs anus

Shared letters: an. Private to "anti": it. Private to "anus": su.

"anti" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "anus" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • antianit · annti · antti · atni · nati
  • anusannus · ansu · anuss · auns · naus

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "anti" and "anus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ̃.ti\ versus \a.nys\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "anti" or "anus"?
"anti" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,105 in our French list, against #12,304 for "anus". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "anti" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "anus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #401,142 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "anti" and "anus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "anus vs aves". 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 #401,142 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