any vs at, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“any” is a noun and “at” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,657
“any” frequency rank: #1,457
“at” frequency rank: 15114
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	any	at
Definition	ano:	em, a

Where the eye mixes any and at

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

3 ch

any

2 ch

Why the eye confuses any with at

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: any is /aɲ/ while at is \æt\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15114, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

any is recorded at frequency rank #13,657, classified as anoun, pronounced /aɲ/. at is at rank #1,457, tagged as aprep, pronounced \æt\.

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 15114, this pair ranks #56,803 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of any vs at

Shared letters: a. Private to "any": ny. Private to "at": t.

"any" · 3 letters · shape VCV · "at" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "any" and "at" mean the same thing in a sentence?

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

Which is more common, "any" or "at"?

"at" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,457 in our Portuguese list, against #13,657 for "any". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

Full dictionary entry for "any" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "at" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #56,803 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"any" and "at" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs any". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #56,803 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.