arms
/ɑɹmz/noun, verb
arms is spelled A-R-M-S: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 66 times per million words in written English, the 1,602nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, arms means “Weaponry, weapons” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in arms?
| Letters | 4: A-R-M-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 66 times per million words; the 1,602nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| 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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is arms?
Arms appears 66 times per million words in written English, the 1,602nd 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 arms?
- US /ɑɹmz/
- UK /ɑːmz/
Arms 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-arms.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with arms?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as arms (/ɑɹmz/).
Spelled with the same letters in another order: mars, rams, rasm.
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).
What does arms mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Weaponry, weapons.
- 2
A visual design composed according to heraldic rules, normally displayed upon an escutcheon and sometimes accompanied by other elements of an achievement
The arms of England are: gules, three lions passant guardant or.
- 3
plural of arm
verb
- 1
third-person singular simple present indicative of arm
If the Duke arms himself for war, the king will not sit by idly!
noun
- 1
plural of ARM
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Arms in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense heraldic design:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | Wappen |
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 arms come from?
From Middle English armes, from Old French armes, from Latin arma (“weapons”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂er-mo-, a suffixed form of *h₂er- (“to fit together”), hence ultimately cognate with etymology 2.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).