Which to use
“arg” is an adjective and “argus” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #34,419
- “arg” frequency rank
- #33,550
- “argus” frequency rank
- 67969
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | arg | argus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Mauvais. | Publication donnant une cote des voitures en fonction de leur âge et modèle. |
Where the eye mixes arg and argus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between arg and argus
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: arg is \ark\ while argus is \aʁ.ɡys\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “arg” sits inside “argus”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67969, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
arg is recorded at frequency rank #34,419, classified as anadj, pronounced \ark\. argus is at rank #33,550, tagged as anoun, pronounced \aʁ.ɡys\.
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 67969, this pair ranks #61,177 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of arg vs argus
Shared letters: agr. Private to "arg": -. Private to "argus": su.
"arg" · 3 letters · shape VCC · "argus" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- argus ← agrus · arggus · argsu · arguss · arrgus · arugs · ragus
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "arg" for "argus" ever safe?
Which is more common, "arg" or "argus"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "arg" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "argus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #61,177 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "arg" and "argus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "arg vs aur". 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 #61,177 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.