ak vs As, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“ak” and “As” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#15,974
“ak” frequency rank: #22
“As” frequency rank: 15996
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ak	As
Definition	irmão (que não é o primogênito)	forma obsoleta de Ass

Where the eye mixes ak and As

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

2 ch

Why the eye confuses ak with As

A purely visual mix-up. ak (/ák̚/) and As (/as/) 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 a single letter - k in “ak” becomes s in “As”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15996, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ak is recorded at frequency rank #15,974, classified as anoun, pronounced /ák̚/. As is at rank #22, tagged as anoun, pronounced /as/.

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 15996, this pair ranks #55,681 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ak vs As

Shared letters: a. Private to "ak": k. Private to "As": s.

"ak" · 2 letters · shape VC · "As" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ak" for "As" ever safe?

No. They are said differently (/ák̚/ versus /as/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Frequency check: "ak" vs "As" - which ranks higher?

"As" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22 in our Portuguese list, against #15,974 for "ak". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

Full dictionary entry for "ak" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "As" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #55,681 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ak" and "As" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs ak". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #55,681 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.