argentsvsarrêtsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#45,440
“argents” frequency rank
#5,631
“arrêts” frequency rank
51071
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature argents arrêts
Definition Pluriel de argent. Défense qui est faite à un officier de sortir de chez lui, ou de s’éloigner d’un lieu déterminé.

Where the eye mixes argents and arrêts

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

7 ch
argents
6 ch
arrêts

Visual trap between argents and arrêts

A purely visual mix-up. argents (\aʁ.ʒɑ̃\) 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 51071, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

argents is recorded at frequency rank #45,440, classified as anoun, pronounced \aʁ.ʒɑ̃\. 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 51071, this pair ranks #157,808 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of argents vs arrêts

Shared letters: arst. Private to "argents": egn. Private to "arrêts": ê.

"argents" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCC  ·  "arrêts" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • argentsagrents · aregnts · argennts · argenst · argentss · argentts · argetns · arggents

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "argents" and "arrêts" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\aʁ.ʒɑ̃\ versus \a.ʁɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "argents" or "arrêts"?
"arrêts" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,631 in our French list, against #45,440 for "argents". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "argents" 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 #157,808 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "argents" and "arrêts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "argents vs aryens". 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 #157,808 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list