APECvsapteWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: APEC is a noun, apte is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“APEC” is a noun and “apte” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,772
“APEC” frequency rank
#12,518
“apte” frequency rank
56290
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature APEC apte
Definition Coopération Économique Asie-Pacifique Qui est propre à quelque chose.

Letter map: APEC vs apte

Shared letters muted; letters that set APEC and apte apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
APEC
4 ch
apte

Part-of-speech tell for APEC / apte

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: APEC is anoun and apteanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56290, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

APEC is recorded at frequency rank #43,772, classified as anoun. apte is at rank #12,518, tagged as anadj, pronounced \apt\.

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 56290, this pair ranks #122,019 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of APEC vs apte

Shared letters: aep. Private to "APEC": c. Private to "apte": t.

"APEC" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "apte" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • APECaepc · apecc · appec
  • apteapet · appte · atpe

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "APEC" for "apte" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "APEC" is a noun and "apte" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "APEC" or "apte" show up more?
"apte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,518 in our French list, against #43,772 for "APEC". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "APEC" and "apte".

  • Full dictionary entry for "APEC" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "apte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #122,019 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "APEC" and "apte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "APEC 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 #122,019 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