Which to use
“fair” is an adjective and “fear” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,104
- “fair” frequency rank
- #1,184
- “fear” frequency rank
- 2288
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fair | fear |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Beautiful, of a pleasing appearance, with a pure and fresh quality. | A strong, unpleasant emotion or feeling caused by actual or perceived danger or threat. |
Where the eye mixes fair and fear
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fair is /fɛə/ while fear is /fɪə/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2288, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fair is recorded at frequency rank #1,104, classified as anadj, pronounced /fɛə/. fear is at rank #1,184, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fɪə/.
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 2288, this pair ranks #525,351 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of fair vs fear
Shared letters: afr. Private to "fair": i. Private to "fear": e.
"fair" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "fear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC