Which to use
“fl” is an abbrev and “Flow” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #13,360
- “fl” frequency rank
- #13,823
- “Flow” frequency rank
- 27183
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fl | Flow |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Femtoliter (= 10⁻¹⁵ l, ein billiardstel Liter) | Durchfluss von Körperflüssigkeiten durch die Gefäße |
Letter map: fl vs Flow
Shared letters muted; letters that set fl and Flow apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Part-of-speech tell for fl / Flow
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: fl is anabbrev and Flowanoun. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “fl” sits inside “Flow”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27183, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fl is recorded at frequency rank #13,360, classified as anabbrev. Flow is at rank #13,823, tagged as anoun, pronounced [flɔʊ̯].
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 27183, this pair ranks #1,805,941 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of fl vs Flow
Shared letters: fl. Private to "fl": -. Private to "Flow": ow.
"fl" · 2 letters · shape CC · "Flow" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- Flow ← fflow · fllow · floww · flwo · folw · lfow
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fl" for "Flow" ever safe?
Frequency check: "fl" vs "Flow" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
You've compared "fl" and "Flow". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "fl" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Flow" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,805,941 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fl" and "Flow" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fils vs fl". 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 #1,805,941 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.