apu vs at, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#48,918
“apu” frequency rank: #4,122
“at” frequency rank: 53040
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	apu	at
Definition	Banquise.	Ancien nom de l’attier, qui a peut-être été importé à la Réunion par les Malbars et les Tamouls ; ce nom était particulièrement fréquent au Sénégal.

Where the eye mixes apu and at

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch

apu

2 ch

Why the eye confuses apu with at

A purely visual mix-up. apu (\a.pu\) and at (\at\) 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 53040, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

apu is recorded at frequency rank #48,918, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.pu\. at is at rank #4,122, tagged as anoun, pronounced \at\.

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 53040, this pair ranks #143,495 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of apu vs at

Shared letters: a. Private to "apu": pu. Private to "at": t.

"apu" · 3 letters · shape VCV · "at" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "apu" and "at" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No. They are said differently (\a.pu\ versus \at\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

In ordinary French text, does "apu" or "at" show up more?

"at" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,122 in our French list, against #48,918 for "apu". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "apu" and "at" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

Full dictionary entry for "apu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "at" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #143,495 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"apu" and "at" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "apu vs aur". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #143,495 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.