agreevsareWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,133
“agree” frequency rank
#19
“are” frequency rank
1152
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature agree are
Definition To be in harmony about an opinion, statement, or action; to have a consistent idea between two or more people. second-person singular simple present of be

Where the eye mixes agree and are

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
agree
3 ch
are

Why the eye confuses agree with are

A purely visual mix-up. agree (/əˈɡɹiː/) and are (/ə(ɹ)/) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1152, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

agree is recorded at frequency rank #1,133, classified as averb, pronounced /əˈɡɹiː/. are is at rank #19, tagged as averb, pronounced /ə(ɹ)/.

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 1152, this pair ranks #527,994 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of agree vs are

Shared letters: aer. Private to "agree": g. Private to "are": -.

"agree" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV  ·  "are" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • agreeagere · aggree · agre · agrree · argee · garee

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "agree" for "are" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/əˈɡɹiː/ versus /ə(ɹ)/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "agree" or "are"?
"are" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19 in our English list, against #1,133 for "agree". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "agree" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "are" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #527,994 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "agree" and "are" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "amb vs are". 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 #527,994 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list