antvsânusWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#28,857
“ant” frequency rank
#20,478
“ânus” frequency rank
49335
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ant ânus
Definition formiga orifício na extremidade final do intestino grosso, por onde são expelidos os excrementos

Where the eye mixes ant and ânus

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

3 ch
ant
4 ch
ânus

Look-alike desk: ant vs ânus

A purely visual mix-up. ant (/ænt/) 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49335, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ant is recorded at frequency rank #28,857, classified as anoun, pronounced /ænt/. 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 49335, this pair ranks #15,697 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ant vs ânus

Shared letters: n. Private to "ant": at. Private to "ânus": suâ.

"ant" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "ânus" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ant" for "ânus" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ænt/ versus /ˈɐ.nuʃ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "ant" 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 #28,857 for "ant". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ant" 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 #15,697 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ant" and "ânus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs ant". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #15,697 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