alasvsallWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: alas is a noun, all is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“alas” is a noun and “all” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,688
“alas” frequency rank
#2,001
“all” frequency rank
19689
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature alas all
Definition forma plural de ala: todo

Letter map: alas vs all

Shared letters muted; letters that set alas and all apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
alas
3 ch
all

Grammar separator: alas vs all

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: alas is anoun and allanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19689, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

alas is recorded at frequency rank #17,688, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈa.lɐs/. all is at rank #2,001, tagged as anadj.

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 19689, this pair ranks #50,999 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of alas vs all

Shared letters: al. Private to "alas": s. Private to "all": -.

"alas" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "all" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • alasaals · alass · allas · alsa · laas

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "alas" and "all" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "alas" is a noun and "all" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "alas" or "all"?
"all" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,001 in our Portuguese list, against #17,688 for "alas". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "alas" and "all".

  • Full dictionary entry for "alas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "all" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #50,999 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "alas" and "all" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs alas". 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 #50,999 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list