arrêtvsarrowTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,316
“arrêt” frequency rank
#19,743
“arrow” frequency rank
21059
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature arrêt arrow
Definition Action de s’arrêter ou état d’être arrêté. Flèche.

Where the eye mixes arrêt and arrow

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
arrêt
5 ch
arrow

Look-alike desk: arrêt vs arrow

A purely visual mix-up. arrêt (\a.ʁɛ\) and arrow (\ˈæɹ.oʊ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21059, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

arrêt is recorded at frequency rank #1,316, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.ʁɛ\. arrow is at rank #19,743, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈæɹ.oʊ\.

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 21059, this pair ranks #365,064 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of arrêt vs arrow

Shared letters: ar. Private to "arrêt": . Private to "arrow": ow.

"arrêt" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "arrow" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • arrowarorw · arow · arroww · arrwo · rarow

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "arrêt" for "arrow" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\a.ʁɛ\ versus \ˈæɹ.oʊ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "arrêt" vs "arrow" - which ranks higher?
"arrêt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,316 in our French list, against #19,743 for "arrow". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "arrêt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "arrow" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #365,064 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "arrêt" and "arrow" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aero vs arrow". 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 #365,064 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