atvsaxeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: at is a preposition, axe is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#1,457
“at” frequency rank
#33,285
“axe” frequency rank
34742
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature at axe
Definition em, a machado, acha

Letter map: at vs axe

Shared letters muted; letters that set at and axe apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch
at
3 ch
axe

Role in the sentence - at and axe

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: at is apreposition and axeanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34742, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

at is recorded at frequency rank #1,457, classified as aprep, pronounced \æt\. axe is at rank #33,285, tagged as anoun.

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 34742, this pair ranks #32,452 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of at vs axe

Shared letters: a. Private to "at": t. Private to "axe": ex.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "at" and "axe" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "at" is a preposition and "axe" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "at" or "axe"?
"at" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,457 in our Portuguese list, against #33,285 for "axe". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "at" and "axe".

  • Full dictionary entry for "at" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "axe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #32,452 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "at" and "axe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs axe". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #32,452 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