archevsArschWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“arche” and “Arsch” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#15,816
“arche” frequency rank
#1,219
“Arsch” frequency rank
17035
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature arche Arsch
Definition Bogen für Hinterteil eines Tieres oder Menschen, Po, Gesäß

Same sound, different letters: arche vs Arsch

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. arche (VCCCV) and Arsch (VCCCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
arche
5 ch
Arsch

Ear matches; page differs - arche and Arsch

This is the hard kind. arche and Arsch are pronounced identically ([aʁʃ]) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17035, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

arche is recorded at frequency rank #15,816, classified as anoun, pronounced [aʁʃ]. Arsch is at rank #1,219, tagged as anoun, pronounced [aʁʃ].

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 17035, this pair ranks #1,930,922 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of arche vs Arsch

Shared letters: achr. Private to "arche": e. Private to "Arsch": s.

"arche" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV  ·  "Arsch" · 5 letters · shape VCCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • arche ← acrhe · arcche · arceh · archhe · arhce · arrche
  • Arsch ← arcsh · arrsch · arscch · arschh · arshc · arssch · asrch

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "arche" and "Arsch" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same ([aʁʃ]), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "arche" or "Arsch"?
"Arsch" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,219 in our German list, against #15,816 for "arche". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "arche" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Arsch" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,930,922 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "arche" and "Arsch" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Aisch vs Arsch". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #1,930,922 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list