arraignmentvsarrangementWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#36,873
“arraignment” frequency rank
#4,654
“arrangement” frequency rank
41527
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature arraignment arrangement
Definition The formal charging of a defendant with an offense; in many jurisdictions it includes their response in the form of a plea, typically as guilty, not guilty, or no contest. The act of arranging.

Where the eye mixes arraignment and arrangement

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.

11 ch
arraignment
11 ch
arrangement

Visual trap between arraignment and arrangement

A purely visual mix-up. arraignment (/əˈɹeɪnmənt/) and arrangement (/əˈɹeɪnd͡ʒmənt/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41527, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

arraignment is recorded at frequency rank #36,873, classified as anoun, pronounced /əˈɹeɪnmənt/. arrangement is at rank #4,654, tagged as anoun, pronounced /əˈɹeɪnd͡ʒmənt/.

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 41527, this pair ranks #257,550 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of arraignment vs arrangement

Shared letters: aegmnrt. Private to "arraignment": i. Private to "arrangement": -.

"arraignment" · 11 letters · shape VCCVVCCCVCC  ·  "arrangement" · 11 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • arraignmentaraignment · ararignment · arraginment · arraiggnment · arraigmnent · arraignemnt · arraignmennt · arraignmentt
  • arrangementarangement · ararngement · arragnement · arranegment · arrangeemnt · arrangemennt · arrangementt · arrangemetn

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "arraignment" for "arrangement" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/əˈɹeɪnmənt/ versus /əˈɹeɪnd͡ʒmənt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "arraignment" or "arrangement"?
"arrangement" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,654 in our English list, against #36,873 for "arraignment". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "arraignment" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "arrangement" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #257,550 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "arraignment" and "arrangement" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "arrangement vs arrangements". 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 #257,550 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