Arc or arch?
arc is a noun meaning “That part of a circle which a heavenly body appears to pass through as it moves…”; arch is a noun meaning “An inverted U shape”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) arc is about 1.5 times as common as arch.
What is the difference between arc and arch?
| arc | arch | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb, prefix, adjective | noun, verb, adjective, suffix, prefix |
| Meaning | That part of a circle which a heavenly body appears to pass through as it moves above and below the horizon A continuous part of the circumference of a circle (circular arc) or of another curve To move following a curved path | An inverted U shape An arch-shaped arrangement of trapezoidal stones, designed to redistribute downward force outward To form into an arch shape |
| Example | Swing it from side to side in a high arc overhead | to pass into the arch of a bridge |
| Forms | arcs | arches archs. |
| Pronunciation | /ɑːk/ /ɑɹk/ | /ɑɹt͡ʃ/ /ɑːt͡ʃ/ /ɑɹk/ |
| In writing | 16 times per million words | 10 times per million words |
Sources: arc and arch in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of arc and arch
arc
- 1
That part of a circle which a heavenly body appears to pass through as it moves above and below the horizon
- 2
To move following a curved path
- 3
Used to form the names of inverse trigonometric functions, and the symbols for these functions
arc-sine (British), arcsine (US)
- 4
Acronym of advance reader's copy, a copy of a book given to a reviewer free in advance for review purposes
- 5
A ship's prefix for warships of the navy of Colombia
- 6
A continuous part of the circumference of a circle (circular arc) or of another curve
- 7
To shape into an arc; to hold in the form of an arc
- 8
proscribedAlternative form of ar- used to form the names of inverse hyperbolic functions, and the symbols for these functions
arch
- 1
An inverted U shape
- 2
To form into an arch shape
The cat arched its back
- 3
Knowing, clever, mischievous
I attempted to hide my emotions, but an arch remark escaped my lips
- 4
Synonym of god (“person who owns and runs a multi-user dungeon”)
- 5
An architecture; a computer architecture or instruction set architecture
In the Linux kernel, arch-specific code lives in the arch directory of the source tree
- 6
leading, leader
- 7
A title in a hierarchy which indicates a higher degree of rank than its root word
archeparch
- 8
Abbreviation of archaic
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, arc or arch?
arc appears 16 times per million words; arch 10 times per million words.
arc 16 times per million wordsarch 10 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search arc vs arch?
“arc vs arch” is searched about 1,900 times a month on Google and 60 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“arch vs arc”, “arc or arch”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.