arkvsarmyConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#36,793
“ark” frequency rank
#11,593
“army” frequency rank
48386
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ark army
Definition eine große Kiste mit einem flachen Deckel Heer

Where the eye mixes ark and army

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

3 ch
ark
4 ch
army

Look-alike desk: ark vs army

A purely visual mix-up. ark ([ɑːk]) and army ([ˈɑːmɪ]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48386, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ark is recorded at frequency rank #36,793, classified as anoun, pronounced [ɑːk]. 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 48386, this pair ranks #1,250,420 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ark vs army

Shared letters: ar. Private to "ark": k. Private to "army": my.

"ark" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "army" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • armyarmmy · armyy · arrmy · arym · ramy

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ark" for "army" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ɑːk] versus [ˈɑːmɪ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "ark" vs "army" - which ranks higher?
"army" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,593 in our German list, against #36,793 for "ark". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ark" 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 #1,250,420 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ark" and "army" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ark vs AUD". 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 #1,250,420 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