abusvsacsConfusable pair

Which to use

“abus” and “acs” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#2,860
“abus” frequency rank
#45,982
“acs” frequency rank
48842
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature abus acs
Definition Usage mauvais, excessif de quelque chose. Pluriel d’ac.

Where the eye mixes abus and acs

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
abus
3 ch
acs

Visual trap between abus and acs

A purely visual mix-up. abus (\a.by\) and acs (\ˈat͡s\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48842, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

abus is recorded at frequency rank #2,860, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.by\. acs is at rank #45,982, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈat͡s\.

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 48842, this pair ranks #175,621 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of abus vs acs

Shared letters: as. Private to "abus": bu. Private to "acs": c.

"abus" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "acs" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • abusabbus · absu · abuss · aubs · baus

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "abus" and "acs" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\a.by\ versus \ˈat͡s\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "abus" or "acs"?
"abus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,860 in our French list, against #45,982 for "acs". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "abus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "acs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #175,621 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "abus" and "acs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs aves". 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 #175,621 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list