an vs app, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#2,817
“an” frequency rank: #4,695
“app” frequency rank: 7512
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	an	app
Definition	ligado, aceso:	aplicativo, aplicação

Letter map: an vs app

Shared letters muted; letters that set an and app apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch

3 ch

app

Part-of-speech tell for an / app

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: an is anadverb and appanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7512, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

an is recorded at frequency rank #2,817, classified as anadv, pronounced /an/. app is at rank #4,695, tagged as anoun.

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 7512, this pair ranks #66,605 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of an vs app

Shared letters: a. Private to "an": n. Private to "app": p.

"an" · 2 letters · shape VC · "app" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "an" and "app" be used interchangeably?

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

Frequency check: "an" vs "app" - which ranks higher?

"an" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,817 in our Portuguese list, against #4,695 for "app". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "an" vs "app" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "an" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "app" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #66,605 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"an" and "app" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs app". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #66,605 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.