apexvsAPLConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#28,445
“apex” frequency rank
#19,442
“APL” frequency rank
47887
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature apex APL
Definition Extrémité d’un organe. Aide personnalisée au logement.

Where the eye mixes apex and APL

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

4 ch
apex
3 ch
APL

Visual trap between apex and APL

A purely visual mix-up. apex (\a.pɛks\) and APL (\a.pe.ɛl\) 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 47887, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

apex is recorded at frequency rank #28,445, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.pɛks\. APL is at rank #19,442, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.pe.ɛl\.

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 47887, this pair ranks #183,364 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of apex vs APL

Shared letters: ap. Private to "apex": ex. Private to "APL": l.

"apex" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "APL" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • apexaepx · apexx · appex · apxe · paex

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "apex" for "APL" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\a.pɛks\ versus \a.pe.ɛl\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "apex" vs "APL" - which ranks higher?
"APL" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,442 in our French list, against #28,445 for "apex". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "apex" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "APL" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #183,364 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "apex" and "APL" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "apex 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 #183,364 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