abusvsartusConfusable pair

Quick tell: abus is a noun, artus is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“abus” is a noun and “artus” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,860
“abus” frequency rank
#40,127
“artus” frequency rank
42987
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature abus artus
Definition Usage mauvais, excessif de quelque chose. Étroit, serré.

Letter map: abus vs artus

Shared letters muted; letters that set abus and artus apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
abus
5 ch
artus

Role in the sentence - abus and artus

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: abus is anoun and artusanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42987, 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\. artus is at rank #40,127, tagged as anadj.

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 42987, this pair ranks #221,442 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of abus vs artus

Shared letters: asu. Private to "abus": b. Private to "artus": rt.

"abus" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "artus" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • abusabbus · absu · abuss · aubs · baus
  • artusarrtus · artsu · arttus · artuss · aruts · atrus · ratus

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "abus" for "artus" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "abus" is a noun and "artus" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "abus" or "artus"?
"abus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,860 in our French list, against #40,127 for "artus". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

You've compared "abus" and "artus". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "abus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "artus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #221,442 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "abus" and "artus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "arti vs artus". 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 #221,442 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