armsvsarrasWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,591
“arms” frequency rank
#49,764
“arras” frequency rank
51355
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature arms arras
Definition Weaponry, weapons. A tapestry or wall hanging.

Where the eye mixes arms and arras

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

4 ch
arms
5 ch
arras

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. arms (/ɑɹmz/) and arras (/ˈæɹəs/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51355, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

arms is recorded at frequency rank #1,591, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɑɹmz/. arras is at rank #49,764, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈæɹəs/.

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 51355, this pair ranks #166,187 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of arms vs arras

Shared letters: ars. Private to "arms": m. Private to "arras": -.

"arms" · 4 letters · shape VCCC  ·  "arras" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • armsamrs · armms · armss · arrms · arsm
  • arrasarars · aras · arrass · arrsa · raras

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "arms" and "arras" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ɑɹmz/ versus /ˈæɹəs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "arms" or "arras"?
"arms" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,591 in our English list, against #49,764 for "arras". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list