arevsariseWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#19
“are” frequency rank
#7,882
“arise” frequency rank
7901
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature are arise
Definition second-person singular simple present of be To come up from a lower to a higher position.

Where the eye mixes are and arise

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

3 ch
are
5 ch
arise

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. are (/ə(ɹ)/) and arise (/əˈɹaɪz/) 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 7901, 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)/. arise is at rank #7,882, tagged as averb, pronounced /əˈɹaɪz/.

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 7901, this pair ranks #505,053 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of are vs arise

Shared letters: aer. Private to "are": -. Private to "arise": is.

"are" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "arise" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ariseairse · arisse · arrise · arsie

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "are" and "arise" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ə(ɹ)/ versus /əˈɹaɪz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "are" or "arise"?
"are" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19 in our English list, against #7,882 for "arise". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "are" and "arise". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "are" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "arise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #505,053 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "are" and "arise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aline vs arise". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list