scarvsspasWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#46,439
“scar” frequency rank
#42,628
“spas” frequency rank
89067
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature scar spas
Definition Cicatrice, balafre. Pluriel de spa.

Where the eye mixes scar and spas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. scar and spas follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
scar
4 ch
spas

Look-alike desk: scar vs spas

A purely visual mix-up. scar (\skɑː(ɹ)\) and spas (\spa\) 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 89067, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

scar is recorded at frequency rank #46,439, classified as anoun, pronounced \skɑː(ɹ)\. spas is at rank #42,628, tagged as anoun, pronounced \spa\.

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 89067, this pair ranks #6,215 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of scar vs spas

Shared letters: as. Private to "scar": cr. Private to "spas": p.

"scar" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "spas" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • scar ← csar · sacr · scarr · sccar · scra · sscar
  • spas ← saps · spass · sppas · spsa · sspas

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "scar" for "spas" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\skɑː(ɹ)\ versus \spa\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "scar" vs "spas" - which ranks higher?
"spas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #42,628 in our French list, against #46,439 for "scar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "scar" and "spas" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "scar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "spas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #6,215 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "scar" and "spas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "scar vs sicav". 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 #6,215 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