Which to use
“apex” and “apu” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,445
- “apex” frequency rank
- #48,918
- “apu” frequency rank
- 77363
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | apex | apu |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Extrémité d’un organe. | Banquise. |
Where the eye mixes apex and apu
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. apex runs 4 letters (VCVC) against apu's 3 (VCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: apex vs apu
A purely visual mix-up. apex (\a.pɛks\) 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 77363, 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\. 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 77363, this pair ranks #28,575 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of apex vs apu
Shared letters: ap. Private to "apex": ex. Private to "apu": u.
"apex" · 4 letters · shape VCVC · "apu" · 3 letters · shape VCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- apex ← aepx · apexx · appex · apxe · paex
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "apex" for "apu" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "apex" or "apu" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "apex" and "apu" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "apex" 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 #28,575 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "apex" 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 #28,575 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.