Which to use
“arête” and “arrêts” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,875
- “arête” frequency rank
- #5,631
- “arrêts” frequency rank
- 23506
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | arête | arrêts |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Os long, mince et pointu qui se trouve dans la chair de certains poissons. | Défense qui est faite à un officier de sortir de chez lui, ou de s’éloigner d’un lieu déterminé. |
Where the eye mixes arête and arrêts
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses arête with arrêts
A purely visual mix-up. arête (\a.ʁɛt\) and arrêts (\a.ʁɛ\) 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 23506, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
arête is recorded at frequency rank #17,875, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.ʁɛt\. arrêts is at rank #5,631, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.ʁɛ\.
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 23506, this pair ranks #352,123 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of arête vs arrêts
Shared letters: artê. Private to "arête": e. Private to "arrêts": s.
"arête" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV · "arrêts" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "arête" and "arrêts" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "arête" or "arrêts"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "arête" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "arrêts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #352,123 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "arête" and "arrêts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "arête vs arti". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #352,123 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.