fairyvsfarWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#48,134
“fairy” frequency rank
#16,418
“far” frequency rank
64552
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fairy far
Definition die Fee Vater

Where the eye mixes fairy and far

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

5 ch
fairy
3 ch
far

Look-alike desk: fairy vs far

A purely visual mix-up. fairy ([ˈfɛəɹɪ]) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64552, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fairy is recorded at frequency rank #48,134, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈfɛəɹɪ]. 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 64552, this pair ranks #637,427 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fairy vs far

Shared letters: afr. Private to "fairy": iy. Private to "far": -.

"fairy" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "far" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fairyafiry · fairry · fairyy · faiyr · fariy · ffairy · fiary

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fairy" and "far" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈfɛəɹɪ] versus [faː]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "fairy" or "far"?
"far" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,418 in our German list, against #48,134 for "fairy". 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 "fairy" 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 #637,427 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fairy" and "far" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fairy 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 #637,427 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