arevsarisTell them apart

Quick tell: are is a verb, aris is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#19
“are” frequency rank
#46,312
“aris” frequency rank
46331
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature are aris
Definition second-person singular simple present of be arse

Where the eye mixes are and aris

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

3 ch
are
4 ch
aris

Visual trap between are and aris

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: are is /ə(ɹ)/ while aris is /ˈæɹɪs/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46331, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

are is recorded at frequency rank #19, classified as averb, pronounced /ə(ɹ)/. aris is at rank #46,312, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈæɹɪs/.

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 46331, this pair ranks #212,811 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of are vs aris

Shared letters: ar. Private to "are": e. Private to "aris": is.

"are" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "aris" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • arisariss · arris · arsi · rais

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "are" and "aris" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "are" is a verb and "aris" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "are" or "aris" show up more?
"are" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19 in our English list, against #46,312 for "aris". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "are" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aris" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #212,811 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "are" and "aris" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aris vs arras". 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 #212,811 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