actesvsartsConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#1,552
“actes” frequency rank
#1,692
“arts” frequency rank
3244
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature actes arts
Definition Pluriel de acte. Pluriel de art.

Where the eye mixes actes and arts

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
actes
4 ch
arts

Look-alike desk: actes vs arts

A purely visual mix-up. actes (\akt\) and arts (\aʁ\) 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 3244, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

actes is recorded at frequency rank #1,552, classified as anoun, pronounced \akt\. arts is at rank #1,692, tagged as anoun, pronounced \aʁ\.

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 3244, this pair ranks #434,469 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of actes vs arts

Shared letters: ast. Private to "actes": ce. Private to "arts": r.

"actes" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "arts" · 4 letters · shape VCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • actesacctes · acets · actess · actse · acttes · atces · cates
  • artsarrts · arst · artss · artts · atrs

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "actes" and "arts" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\akt\ versus \aʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "actes" or "arts" show up more?
"actes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,552 in our French list, against #1,692 for "arts". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "actes" and "arts" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "actes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "arts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #434,469 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "actes" and "arts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "arts 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 #434,469 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