Which to use
“ach” and “aches” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #30,673
- “ach” frequency rank
- #20,025
- “aches” frequency rank
- 50698
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ach | aches |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Any of several species of plants, such as smallage, wild celery, parsley. | plural of ache |
Where the eye mixes ach and aches
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. ach runs 3 letters (VCC) against aches's 5 (VCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between ach and aches
A purely visual mix-up. ach (/æt͡ʃ/) and aches (/eɪks/) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “ach” sits inside “aches”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50698, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ach is recorded at frequency rank #30,673, classified as anoun, pronounced /æt͡ʃ/. aches is at rank #20,025, tagged as anoun, pronounced /eɪks/.
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 50698, this pair ranks #171,957 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ach vs aches
Shared letters: ach. Private to "ach": -. Private to "aches": es.
"ach" · 3 letters · shape VCC · "aches" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- aches ← acches · acehs · achess · achhes · achse · ahces · cahes
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "ach" and "aches" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "ach" or "aches" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "ach" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "aches" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #171,957 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ach" and "aches" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ach vs amb". 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 #171,957 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.