Which to use
“abra” and “acre” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #42,507
- “abra” frequency rank
- #7,877
- “acre” frequency rank
- 50384
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | abra | acre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | a narrow mountain or mesa pass | An English unit of land area (symbol: a. or ac.) originally denoting a day's ploughing for a yoke of oxen, now standardized as 4,840 square yards or 4,046.86 square metres. |
Where the eye mixes abra and acre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. abra and acre follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: abra vs acre
A purely visual mix-up. abra (/ˈæbɹə/) and acre (/ˈeɪ.kə/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50384, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
abra is recorded at frequency rank #42,507, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈæbɹə/. acre is at rank #7,877, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈeɪ.kə/.
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 50384, this pair ranks #174,812 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of abra vs acre
Shared letters: ar. Private to "abra": b. Private to "acre": ce.
"abra" · 4 letters · shape VCCV · "acre" · 4 letters · shape VCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "abra" for "acre" ever safe?
Which is more common, "abra" or "acre"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "abra" and "acre" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "abra" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "acre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #174,812 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "abra" and "acre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "abra vs Asta". 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 #174,812 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.