anusvsavisWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#12,304
“anus” frequency rank
#503
“avis” frequency rank
12807
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature anus avis
Definition Orifice du rectum par lequel se termine l’intestin. Ce que l’on pense et aussi ce que l’on en dit ; opinion.

Where the eye mixes anus and avis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. anus and avis follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
anus
4 ch
avis

Look-alike desk: anus vs avis

A purely visual mix-up. anus (\a.nys\) and avis (\a.vi\) 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 12807, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

anus is recorded at frequency rank #12,304, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.nys\. avis is at rank #503, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.vi\.

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 12807, this pair ranks #403,668 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of anus vs avis

Shared letters: as. Private to "anus": nu. Private to "avis": iv.

"anus" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "avis" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • anusannus · ansu · anuss · auns · naus
  • avisaivs · aviss · avsi · avvis

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "anus" for "avis" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\a.nys\ versus \a.vi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "anus" vs "avis" - which ranks higher?
"avis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #503 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.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "anus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "avis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #403,668 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "anus" and "avis" 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 #403,668 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