APA vs are, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#23,196
“APA” frequency rank: #4,038
“are” frequency rank: 27234
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	APA	are
Definition	área de proteção ambiental	unidade de medida de área equivalente a 100 metros quadrados

Letter map: APA vs are

Shared letters muted; letters that set APA and are apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch

APA

3 ch

are

Role in the sentence - APA and are

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: APA is anabbrev and areanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27234, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

APA is recorded at frequency rank #23,196, classified as anabbrev. are is at rank #4,038, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈa.ɾe/.

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 27234, this pair ranks #41,777 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of APA vs are

Shared letters: a. Private to "APA": p. Private to "are": er.

"APA" · 3 letters · shape VCV · "are" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "APA" and "are" mean the same thing in a sentence?

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

Which is more common, "APA" or "are"?

"are" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,038 in our Portuguese list, against #23,196 for "APA". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "APA" vs "are" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "APA" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "are" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #41,777 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"APA" and "are" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs APA". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #41,777 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.