Which to use
“acre” is a noun and “ancrer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #28,433
- “acre” frequency rank
- #34,860
- “ancrer” frequency rank
- 63293
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | acre | ancrer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Unité de surface égale à 0,4 hectare ou à 4046,9 mètres carrés, encore utilisée en agriculture et dans divers pays avec des valeurs différentes. | Jeter l’ancre. |
Where the eye mixes acre and ancrer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. acre runs 4 letters (VCCV) against ancrer's 6 (VCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses acre with ancrer
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: acre is \akʁ\ while ancrer is \ɑ̃.kʁe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63293, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
acre is recorded at frequency rank #28,433, classified as anoun, pronounced \akʁ\. ancrer is at rank #34,860, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.kʁe\.
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 63293, this pair ranks #82,716 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of acre vs ancrer
Shared letters: acer. Private to "acre": -. Private to "ancrer": n.
"acre" · 4 letters · shape VCCV · "ancrer" · 6 letters · shape VCCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "acre" and "ancrer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "acre" or "ancrer"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "acre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ancrer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #82,716 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "acre" and "ancrer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ancrer vs answer". 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 #82,716 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.