ânusvsapósTell them apart

Quick tell: ânus is a noun, após is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#20,478
“ânus” frequency rank
#187
“após” frequency rank
20665
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ânus após
Definition orifício na extremidade final do intestino grosso, por onde são expelidos os excrementos em seguimento

Where the eye mixes ânus and após

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

4 ch
ânus
4 ch
após

Visual trap between ânus and após

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ânus is /ˈɐ.nuʃ/ while após is /ɐ.ˈpɔʃ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20665, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ânus is recorded at frequency rank #20,478, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɐ.nuʃ/. após is at rank #187, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ɐ.ˈpɔʃ/.

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 20665, this pair ranks #49,785 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ânus vs após

Shared letters: s. Private to "ânus": nuâ. Private to "após": apó.

"ânus" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "após" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ânus" for "após" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ânus" is a noun and "após" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "ânus" or "após" show up more?
"após" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #187 in our Portuguese list, against #20,478 for "ânus". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ânus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "após" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #49,785 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ânus" and "após" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs ânus". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #49,785 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