apt vs at, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#41,338
“apt” frequency rank: #1,457
“at” frequency rank: 42795
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	apt	at
Definition	apto	em, a

Where the eye mixes apt and at

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch

apt

2 ch

Why the eye confuses apt with at

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: apt is /æpt/ 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 (adjective vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42795, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

apt is recorded at frequency rank #41,338, classified as anadj, pronounced /æpt/. 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 42795, this pair ranks #22,928 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of apt vs at

Shared letters: at. Private to "apt": p. Private to "at": -.

"apt" · 3 letters · shape VCC · "at" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "apt" and "at" be used interchangeably?

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

Frequency check: "apt" vs "at" - which ranks higher?

"at" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,457 in our Portuguese list, against #41,338 for "apt". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "apt" and "at" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

Full dictionary entry for "apt" 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 #22,928 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"apt" and "at" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs apt". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #22,928 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.