acrevsactsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“acre” and “acts” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#7,877
“acre” frequency rank
#2,276
“acts” frequency rank
10153
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acre acts
Definition 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. plural of act

Where the eye mixes acre and acts

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

4 ch
acre
4 ch
acts

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. acre (/ˈeɪ.kə/) and acts (/ækts/) 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 10153, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

acre is recorded at frequency rank #7,877, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈeɪ.kə/. acts is at rank #2,276, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ækts/.

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 10153, this pair ranks #493,710 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of acre vs acts

Shared letters: ac. Private to "acre": er. Private to "acts": st.

"acre" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "acts" · 4 letters · shape VCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • acreaccre · acrre
  • actsaccts · actss · actts · atcs

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "acre" and "acts" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈeɪ.kə/ versus /ækts/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "acre" or "acts"?
"acts" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,276 in our English list, against #7,877 for "acre". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list