an

/an/

//an// adv

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“an” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #2,817) as an adverb. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#2,817
frequency rank, Portuguese
1,900
“A” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - ligado, aceso:

Corpus desk

Index PT-an · an · Portuguese

an · rank #2,817 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #2,817
  • LEN-SHORT 2 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,900
  • PHOTO-FINISH aliança

Nearest frequency peer: aliança (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Vizinhos de frequência do confusável “an”

Pares de peso semelhante no corpus, aparte dos confusáveis abaixo

corpus weight

What this shows As barras situam “an” face aos lemas portugueses mais próximos por rank, não um reprint da secretária de confusáveis.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

an vs As
0% similar
an vs ao
50% similar
an vs ar
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for an
PropertyValue
Headwordan
LanguagePortuguese
Part of speechAdverb
IPA/an/
Letters2
Frequency rank#2,817
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rank de corpus junto a confusáveis de “an”

Esta escala corre do núcleo do português quotidiano (esquerda) até o rastro de formas raras (direita).ancai aqui:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Os ticks avançam em logaritmo; cada um é da ordem de dez vezes mais raro. Na mesma faixa de raridade aparecem “aliança” (#2,816), “atacar” (#2,818), “abordagem” (#2,815). Entre 1,900 lemas com “A”, “an” fica em #2,817. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for an is neighbouring look-alikes ("As", "ao", …), not just typos; it is anadverb pronounced /an/. Frequency #2,817 among 1,900 “A” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for an, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "As", "ao", "ar", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct Portuguese form is an, spelled A-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    ligado, aceso:
  2. 2
    em diante:

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how an appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Das Licht ist an.
  2. von heute an

Antonyms

aus

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 Portuguese corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "an"?
"an" is spelled A-N. The IPA pronunciation is /an/.
What does "an" mean?
As an adverb, "an" means: ligado, aceso:
What words are commonly confused with "an"?
"an" is commonly confused with "As", "ao", "ar". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "an"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "an" is /an/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "an" come from?
"an" is a Portuguese word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list