facevsfarWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“face” and “far” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#10,650
“face” frequency rank
#16,418
“far” frequency rank
27068
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature face far
Definition der vordere Teil des Kopfes; Antlitz, Angesicht, Gesicht, Visage Vater

Where the eye mixes face and far

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
face
3 ch
far

Why the eye confuses face with far

A purely visual mix-up. face ([feɪs]) and far ([faː]) 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 27068, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

face is recorded at frequency rank #10,650, classified as anoun, pronounced [feɪs]. far is at rank #16,418, tagged as anoun, pronounced [faː].

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 27068, this pair ranks #1,807,871 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of face vs far

Shared letters: af. Private to "face": ce. Private to "far": r.

"face" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "far" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • faceafce · facce · faec · fcae · fface

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "face" and "far" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([feɪs] versus [faː]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "face" or "far"?
"face" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,650 in our German list, against #16,418 for "far". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "face" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "far" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,807,871 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "face" and "far" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "far vs firm". 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 #1,807,871 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list