Which to use
“ARD” is an abbrev and “army” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,353
- “ARD” frequency rank
- #11,593
- “army” frequency rank
- 14946
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ARD | army |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland | Heer |
Where the eye mixes ARD and army
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: ARD vs army
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ARD is [aʔɛɐ̯ˈdeː] while army is [ˈɑːmɪ]. 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 (abbrev vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14946, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ARD is recorded at frequency rank #3,353, classified as anabbrev, pronounced [aʔɛɐ̯ˈdeː]. army is at rank #11,593, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈɑːmɪ].
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 14946, this pair ranks #1,947,571 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of ARD vs army
Shared letters: ar. Private to "ARD": d. Private to "army": my.
"ARD" · 3 letters · shape VCC · "army" · 4 letters · shape VCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- army ← armmy · armyy · arrmy · arym · ramy
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ARD" for "army" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "ARD" or "army" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "ARD" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "army" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,947,571 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ARD" and "army" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "arma vs army". 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 #1,947,571 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.