ahavsarcWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: aha is a intj, arc is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“aha” is an intj and “arc” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,847
“aha” frequency rank
#3,180
“arc” frequency rank
28027
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aha arc
Definition Exprime l’illumination, la révélation, la découverte. 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 aha and arc

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
aha
3 ch
arc

Look-alike desk: aha vs arc

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: aha is \a.ha\ while arc is \aʁk\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (intj vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28027, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aha is recorded at frequency rank #24,847, classified as anintj, pronounced \a.ha\. 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 28027, this pair ranks #325,335 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of aha vs arc

Shared letters: a. Private to "aha": h. Private to "arc": cr.

"aha" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "arc" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "aha" and "arc" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "aha" is an intj and "arc" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "aha" or "arc"?
"arc" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,180 in our French list, against #24,847 for "aha". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "aha" 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 #325,335 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aha" and "arc" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aha vs aur". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #325,335 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