arcvsaruWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,180
“arc” frequency rank
#48,924
“aru” frequency rank
52104
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature arc aru
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. Vagin.

Where the eye mixes arc and aru

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
arc
3 ch
aru

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. arc (\aʁk\) and aru (\aru\) 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 a single letter - c in “arc” becomes u in “aru”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52104, 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\. aru is at rank #48,924, tagged as anoun, pronounced \aru\.

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 52104, this pair ranks #150,145 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of arc vs aru

Shared letters: ar. Private to "arc": c. Private to "aru": u.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "arc" and "aru" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\aʁk\ versus \aru\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "arc" or "aru"?
"arc" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,180 in our French list, against #48,924 for "aru". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "arc" and "aru". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "arc" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aru" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #150,145 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "arc" and "aru" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aru vs aur". Nearby pair

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list