aoutvsapuWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#10,822
“aout” frequency rank
#48,918
“apu” frequency rank
59740
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aout apu
Definition Huitième mois de l’année du calendrier grégorien, constitué de 31 jours. Banquise.

Where the eye mixes aout and apu

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. aout runs 4 letters (VVVC) against apu's 3 (VCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
aout
3 ch
apu

Visual trap between aout and apu

A purely visual mix-up. aout (\u(t)\) and apu (\a.pu\) 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 59740, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aout is recorded at frequency rank #10,822, classified as anoun, pronounced \u(t)\. apu is at rank #48,918, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.pu\.

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 59740, this pair ranks #101,440 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of aout vs apu

Shared letters: au. Private to "aout": ot. Private to "apu": p.

"aout" · 4 letters · shape VVVC  ·  "apu" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aout ← aotu · aoutt · oaut

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "aout" and "apu" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\u(t)\ versus \a.pu\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "aout" vs "apu" - which ranks higher?
"aout" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,822 in our French list, against #48,918 for "apu". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "aout" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "apu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #101,440 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aout" and "apu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "apu 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 #101,440 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