anisvsânusTell them apart

Which to use

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

#44,203
“anis” frequency rank
#20,478
“ânus” frequency rank
64681
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature anis ânus
Definition planta (Pimpinella anisum) herbácea da família das umbelíferas com aplicações em farmácia, na culinária e na preparação de algumas bebidas alcoólicas orifício na extremidade final do intestino grosso, por onde são expelidos os excrementos

Where the eye mixes anis and ânus

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
anis
4 ch
ânus

Look-alike desk: anis vs ânus

A purely visual mix-up. anis (/ɐ.ˈniʃ/) and ânus (/ˈɐ.nuʃ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64681, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

anis is recorded at frequency rank #44,203, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɐ.ˈniʃ/. ânus is at rank #20,478, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɐ.nuʃ/.

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 64681, this pair ranks #5,673 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of anis vs ânus

Shared letters: ns. Private to "anis": ai. Private to "ânus": .

"anis" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "ânus" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • anisains · aniss · annis · ansi · nais

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "anis" for "ânus" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɐ.ˈniʃ/ versus /ˈɐ.nuʃ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "anis" or "ânus" show up more?
"ânus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,478 in our Portuguese list, against #44,203 for "anis". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "anis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ânus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,673 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "anis" and "ânus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs anis". 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 #5,673 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