faecesvsfaresWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#41,118
“faeces” frequency rank
#12,774
“fares” frequency rank
53892
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature faeces fares
Definition Alternative spelling of feces. plural of fare

Letter map: faeces vs fares

Shared letters muted; letters that set faeces and fares apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. faeces runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against fares's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
faeces
5 ch
fares

Pair insight - faeces / fares

faeces and fares are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53892, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

faeces is recorded at frequency rank #41,118, classified as anoun. fares is at rank #12,774, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fɛəz/.

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 53892, this pair ranks #145,342 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of faeces vs fares

Shared letters: aefs. Private to "faeces": c. Private to "fares": r.

"faeces" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "fares" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • faeces ← afeces · facees · faecces · faecess · faecse · faeecs · feaces · ffaeces
  • fares ← afres · faress · farres · farse · ffares · fraes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "faeces" for "fares" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "faeces" vs "fares" - which ranks higher?
"fares" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,774 in our English list, against #41,118 for "faeces". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "faeces" and "fares".

  • Full dictionary entry for "faeces" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fares" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #145,342 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "faeces" and "fares" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "faeces vs Fawkes". 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 #145,342 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list