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PlainSpell

arc

/ɑɹk/noun, verb

arc is spelled A-R-C: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 16 times per million words in written English, the 5,025th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “arc vs arch” about 1,900 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, arc means “That part of a circle which a heavenly body appears to pass through as it moves above and below the horizon” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of arc is arcs.

How many letters and syllables are in arc?

Letters3: A-R-C
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing16 times per million words; the 5,025th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is arc?

Arc appears 16 times per million words in written English, the 5,025th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce arc?

  • UK /ɑːk/
  • US /ɑɹk/

Arc has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-arc.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Flame,_not_lame-arc-.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with arc

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

arc vs arch1,900 G
arc vs ark590 G

Sounds like: ark (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with arc?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as arc from its last stressed vowel (/ɑɹk/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: car.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of arc

  • arcs plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • arcing participle, present
  • arcking participle, present, rare
  • arced participle, past
  • arcked participle, past, rare

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does arc mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    That part of a circle which a heavenly body appears to pass through as it moves above and below the horizon.

  2. 2

    A continuous part of the circumference of a circle (circular arc) or of another curve.

  3. 3

    A curve, in general.

    Swing it from side to side in a high arc overhead.

  4. 4

    A band contained within parallel curves, or something of that shape.

  5. 5

    A flow of current across an insulating medium; especially a hot, luminous discharge either between two electrodes or as lightning.

  6. 6

    Ellipsis of story arc.

  7. 7

    A period or phase in a person's life.

    I'm hitting the gym three times a week or more at the moment. I'm in my gym bro arc.

  8. 8

    A continuous mapping from a real interval (typically [0, 1]) into a space.

verb

  1. 1

    To move following a curved path.

  2. 2

    To shape into an arc; to hold in the form of an arc.

  3. 3

    To form an electrical arc.

noun

as ARC
  1. 1

    Acronym of advance reader's copy, a copy of a book given to a reviewer free in advance for review purposes.

  2. 2

    Initialism of AIDS-related complex.

  3. 3

    Acronym of automatic reference counting.

adjective

as ARC
  1. 1

    A ship's prefix for warships of the navy of Colombia.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Arc in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frencharc de courbe (geometry: part of a curve), arc (curve)
GermanBogen, Arkus, Kreisbogen (geometry: part of a curve), Kurve (curve), Lichtbogen (electric discharge)
Portuguesearco (geometry: part of a curve), curva (curve), arco- (forms the names of inverse trigonometric and…)
Spanisharco (geometry: part of a curve), curva (curve)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does arc come from?

Inherited from Middle English ark, from Old French arc, from Latin arcus (“a bow, arc, arch”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂erkʷos (“bow, arrow”). Doublet of arch, arco, and arrow.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after arc