Which to use
“arc” and “army” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,180
- “arc” frequency rank
- #20,358
- “army” frequency rank
- 23538
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | arc | army |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Armée (plus particulièrement armée de terre), groupe organisé de soldats. |
Where the eye mixes arc and army
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between arc and army
A purely visual mix-up. arc (\aʁk\) and army (\ˈɑɹ.mi\) 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 23538, 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\. army is at rank #20,358, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈɑɹ.mi\.
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 23538, this pair ranks #351,915 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of arc vs army
Shared letters: ar. Private to "arc": c. Private to "army": my.
"arc" · 3 letters · shape VCC · "army" · 4 letters · shape VCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- army ← armmy · armyy · arrmy · arym · ramy
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "arc" and "army" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "arc" or "army"?
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 "arc" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "army" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #351,915 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "arc" and "army" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "army vs arti". 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 #351,915 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.