arse
/ɑːs/
"arse" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“arse” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #13,462) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #13,462
- frequency rank, English
- 3,931
- “A” headwords
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A person's buttocks; the bottom, the backside. Also: the anus; the rectum.
Corpus desk
Index EN-arse · arse · English
arse · rank #13,462 · 4 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #13,462
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-LOW 4 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,931
- PHOTO-FINISH archaeology
Nearest frequency peer: archaeology (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “arse”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- alma
alma
86,542 corpus weight
- ambiguous
ambiguous
86,541 corpus weight
- archaeology
archaeology
86,540 corpus weight
- arse
arse
86,539 corpus weight
- attained
attained
86,538 corpus weight
- autopsy
autopsy
86,536 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “arse” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | arse |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ɑːs/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #13,462 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “arse” sits in English frequency
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for arse is neighbouring look-alikes ("as", "ask", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /ɑːs/. Frequency #13,462 among 3,931 “A” headwords. 4 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for arse, with forms such as "arrse", "arsse", and "asre". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "as", "ask", "art", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English ars, ers, from Old English ærs, ears, from Proto-West Germanic *ars, from Proto-Germanic *arsaz (compare Dutch aars and German Arsch), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁órsos (“backside, buttocks”). The correct English form is arse, spelled A-R-S-E.
Definition
- 1A person's buttocks; the bottom, the backside. Also: the anus; the rectum.
- 2A stupid, pompous, arrogant, mean or despicable person.
- 3Used in similes to express something bad or unpleasant.
- 4A person; the self; (reflexively) oneself or one's person, chiefly their body; (by extension) one's personal safety, or figuratively one's job, prospects, etc.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how arse appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
As the novel progresses, he is shot in the hand with his own gun, shot in the arse with someone else's and lacerated by a prosthetic weed trimmer.
No one, then or now, wanted to drink the mead that came out of Odin's arse.
Etymology
From Middle English ars, ers, from Old English ærs, ears, from Proto-West Germanic *ars, from Proto-Germanic *arsaz (compare Dutch aars and German Arsch), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁órsos (“backside, buttocks”).
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- arrse
- arsse
- asre
- rase
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of arse - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "arse", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
What to do next
You've looked up "arse". Here's where to go from here.
- "arse" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "as". View pair
- 4 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #13,462 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "A" letter cohort. A–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.