appears vs arrears, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“appears” is a verb and “arrears” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,518
“appears” frequency rank: #27,052
“arrears” frequency rank: 28570
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	appears	arrears
Definition	third-person singular simple present indicative of appear	plural of arrear

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set appears and arrears apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch

appears

7 ch

arrears

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: appears is /əˈpɪəz/ while arrears is /əˈɹɪə(ɹ)z/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28570, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

appears is recorded at frequency rank #1,518, classified as averb, pronounced /əˈpɪəz/. arrears is at rank #27,052, tagged as anoun, pronounced /əˈɹɪə(ɹ)z/.

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 28570, this pair ranks #370,022 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of appears vs arrears

Shared letters: aers. Private to "appears": p. Private to "arrears": -.

"appears" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCC · "arrears" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

appears ← apears · apepars · appaers · appearrs · appearss · appeasr · apperas · papears
arrears ← arears · arerars · arraers · arrearrs · arrearss · arreasr · arreras · rarears

Frequency comparison

appears#1,518

arrears#27,052

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "appears" and "arrears" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "appears" is a verb and "arrears" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "appears" or "arrears"?

"appears" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,518 in our English list, against #27,052 for "arrears". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering appears vs arrears

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “appears”; for a noun, it's “arrears”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “appears” entry
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