ASAP vs away, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“ASAP” is an adverb and “away” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,445
“ASAP” frequency rank: #20,367
“away” frequency rank: 65812
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ASAP	away
Definition	Dès que possible.	Parti.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set ASAP and away apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

ASAP

4 ch

away

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ASAP is \a.sap\ while away is \ə.ˈweɪ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65812, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ASAP is recorded at frequency rank #45,445, classified as anadv, pronounced \a.sap\. away is at rank #20,367, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ə.ˈweɪ\.

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 65812, this pair ranks #70,646 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ASAP vs away

Shared letters: a. Private to "ASAP": ps. Private to "away": wy.

"ASAP" · 4 letters · shape VCVC · "away" · 4 letters · shape VCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

ASAP ← aasp · asapp · aspa · assap · saap
away ← aawy · awayy · awway · awya · waay

Frequency comparison

ASAP#45,445

away#20,367

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ASAP" and "away" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ASAP" is an adverb and "away" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "ASAP" or "away"?

"away" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,367 in our French list, against #45,445 for "ASAP". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering ASAP vs away

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need an adverb, it's “ASAP”; for an adjective, it's “away”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “ASAP” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable