accruesvsaccrusConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#32,657
“accrues” frequency rank
#35,353
“accrus” frequency rank
68010
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature accrues accrus
Definition Pluriel de accrue. Pluriel de accru.

Same sound, different letters: accrues vs accrus

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. accrues runs 7 letters (VCCCVVC) against accrus's 6 (VCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
accrues
6 ch
accrus

Same sound, different spelling - accrues / accrus

This is the hard kind. accrues and accrus are pronounced identically (\a.kʁy\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68010, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

accrues is recorded at frequency rank #32,657, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.kʁy\. accrus is at rank #35,353, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.kʁy\.

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 68010, this pair ranks #60,987 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of accrues vs accrus

Shared letters: acrsu. Private to "accrues": e. Private to "accrus": -.

"accrues" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVVC  ·  "accrus" · 6 letters · shape VCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • accruesaccreus · accrrues · accruess · accruse · accures · acrcues · acrues · cacrues
  • accrusaccrrus · accrsu · accruss · accurs · acrcus · acrus · cacrus

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "accrues" for "accrus" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\a.kʁy\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "accrues" vs "accrus" - which ranks higher?
"accrues" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,657 in our French list, against #35,353 for "accrus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've separated the homophone pair "accrues" / "accrus". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "accrues" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "accrus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #60,987 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "accrues" and "accrus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Accra vs accrus". 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 #60,987 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