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arrest

ar·rest/əˈɹɛst/noun, verb

arrest is spelled A-R-R-E-S-T: 6 letters and 2 syllables (ar·rest). It appears 35 times per million words in written English, the 2,725th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, arrest means “A check; a stop; an act or instance of arresting something” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of arrest is arrests.

How many letters and syllables are in arrest?

Letters6: A-R-R-E-S-T
Syllables2: ar·rest
In writing35 times per million words; the 2,725th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; 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 arrest?

Arrest appears 35 times per million words in written English, the 2,725th 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 arrest?

  • /əˈɹɛst/
  • [əˈɹʷɛst]

Arrest has 2 syllables, split ar·rest in writing.

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

What rhymes with arrest?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as arrest.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: raster, starer.

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 arrest

  • arrests plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • arresting participle, present
  • arrested participle, past

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

What does arrest mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A check; a stop; an act or instance of arresting something.

  2. 2

    The condition of being stopped, standstill.

    cardiac arrest, respiratory arrest

  3. 3

    The process of arresting a criminal, suspect etc.

    State police made a total of 15 drug-related arrests across the city.

  4. 4

    A confinement, detention, as after an arrest.

  5. 5

    A device to physically arrest motion.

  6. 6

    The judicial detention of a ship to secure a financial claim against its operators.

  7. 7

    obsoleteAny seizure by power, physical or otherwise.

  8. 8

    A scurfiness of the back part of the hind leg of a horse

verb

  1. 1

    obsoleteTo stop the motion of (a person, animal, or body part).

  2. 2

    obsoleteTo stay, remain.

  3. 3

    To stop or slow (a process, course etc.).

    Knowledge replaced universal resemblance with finite differences. History was arrested and turned into tables …Western reason had entered the age of judgement.

  4. 4

    To seize (someone) with the authority of the law; to take into legal custody.

    The police have arrested a suspect in the murder inquiry.

  5. 5

    To catch the attention of.

    There is something about this picture–something bold and vigorous, which arrests the attention. I feel sure it would be highly popular.

  6. 6

    To undergo cardiac arrest.

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

Arrest in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Portuguesedetenção (condition of being stopped), prisão (legal: process of arresting a criminal, suspect…), cárcere (confinement, as after an arrest), deter, parar (to stop or slow a process etc), prender (to take into legal custody)
Frencharrestation (legal: process of arresting a criminal, suspect…), arrêter (to take into legal custody)
GermanVerhaftung, Festnahme (legal: process of arresting a criminal, suspect…), Arrest (confinement, as after an arrest), arretieren (to stop or slow a process etc), festnehmen, verhaften (to take into legal custody)
Spanisharresto (legal: process of arresting a criminal, suspect…), arrestar (to take into legal custody)

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 arrest come from?

From Middle English arest (noun) and aresten (verb), from Old French areste (noun) and arester (“to stay, stop”, verb), from Vulgar Latin *arrestō, from Latin ad- (“to”) + restō (“to stop, remain behind, stay back”), from re- (“back”) + stō (“to stand”), from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand”), equivalent to ad- + rest. Compare French arrêter (“to stop”).

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

What to look up after arrest