Which to use
“arc” and “arche” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,180
- “arc” frequency rank
- #10,990
- “arche” frequency rank
- 14170
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | arc | arche |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 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. | Partie cintrée d’un pont, d’un aqueduc, d’un viaduc, etc. |
Where the eye mixes arc and arche
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: arc vs arche
A purely visual mix-up. arc (\aʁk\) and arche (\aʁʃ\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “arc” sits inside “arche”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14170, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
arc is recorded at frequency rank #3,180, classified as anoun, pronounced \aʁk\. arche is at rank #10,990, tagged as anoun, pronounced \aʁʃ\.
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 14170, this pair ranks #397,867 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of arc vs arche
Shared letters: acr. Private to "arc": -. Private to "arche": eh.
"arc" · 3 letters · shape VCC · "arche" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- arche ← acrhe · arcche · arceh · archhe · arhce · arrche · rache
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "arc" and "arche" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "arc" or "arche"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "arc" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "arche" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #397,867 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "arc" and "arche" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "arche vs Arcy". 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 #397,867 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.