Which to use
“acre” and “arc” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,433
- “acre” frequency rank
- #3,180
- “arc” frequency rank
- 31613
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | acre | arc |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Arme de trait servant à lancer des flèches, formée d’une branche de bois ou d’une verge, soit de métal, soit d’autre matière, courbée avec effort au moyen d’une corde qui s’attache aux deux extrémités. |
Where the eye mixes acre and arc
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses acre with arc
A purely visual mix-up. acre (\akʁ\) and arc (\aʁk\) 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 31613, 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\. arc is at rank #3,180, tagged as anoun, pronounced \aʁk\.
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 31613, this pair ranks #302,704 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of acre vs arc
Shared letters: acr. Private to "acre": e. Private to "arc": -.
"acre" · 4 letters · shape VCCV · "arc" · 3 letters · shape VCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- acre ← accre · acrre
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "acre" and "arc" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "acre" vs "arc" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "acre" and "arc" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "acre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "arc" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #302,704 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "acre" and "arc" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acre vs aur". 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 #302,704 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.