apevsartTell them apart

Which to use

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

#28,095
“ape” frequency rank
#2,554
“art” frequency rank
30649
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ape art
Definition comida para cavalos arte

Where the eye mixes ape and art

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

3 ch
ape
3 ch
art

Visual trap between ape and art

A purely visual mix-up. ape (/ˈɑ.pe/) and art (/aR/) 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 30649, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ape is recorded at frequency rank #28,095, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɑ.pe/. art is at rank #2,554, tagged as anoun, pronounced /aR/.

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 30649, this pair ranks #37,657 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ape vs art

Shared letters: a. Private to "ape": ep. Private to "art": rt.

"ape" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "art" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ape" and "art" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈɑ.pe/ versus /aR/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "ape" or "art" show up more?
"art" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,554 in our Portuguese list, against #28,095 for "ape". 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 "ape" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "art" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #37,657 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ape" and "art" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs ape". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #37,657 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