facesvsfameWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“faces” and “fame” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#2,536
“faces” frequency rank
#4,017
“fame” frequency rank
6553
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature faces fame
Definition plural of face Something said or reported; gossip, rumour.

Where the eye mixes faces and fame

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

5 ch
faces
4 ch
fame

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. faces (/ˈfeɪsɪz/) and fame (/feɪm/) 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 6553, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

faces is recorded at frequency rank #2,536, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfeɪsɪz/. fame is at rank #4,017, tagged as anoun, pronounced /feɪm/.

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 6553, this pair ranks #510,963 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of faces vs fame

Shared letters: aef. Private to "faces": cs. Private to "fame": m.

"faces" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "fame" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • facesafces · facces · facess · facse · faecs · fcaes · ffaces
  • fameafme · faem · famme · ffame · fmae

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "faces" and "fame" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈfeɪsɪz/ versus /feɪm/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "faces" or "fame"?
"faces" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,536 in our English list, against #4,017 for "fame". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list