Which to use
“fallow” and “fellows” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #35,715
- “fallow” frequency rank
- #9,333
- “fellows” frequency rank
- 45048
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fallow | fellows |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ground ploughed and harrowed but left unseeded for one year. | plural of fellow |
Where the eye mixes fallow and fellows
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. fallow runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against fellows's 7 (CVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: fallow vs fellows
A purely visual mix-up. fallow (/ˈfæləʊ/) and fellows (/ˈfɛloʊz/) 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 45048, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fallow is recorded at frequency rank #35,715, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfæləʊ/. fellows is at rank #9,333, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɛloʊz/.
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 45048, this pair ranks #224,901 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fallow vs fellows
Shared letters: flow. Private to "fallow": a. Private to "fellows": es.
"fallow" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "fellows" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fallow" for "fellows" ever safe?
Which is more common, "fallow" or "fellows"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "fallow" and "fellows" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fallow" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fellows" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #224,901 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fallow" and "fellows" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fallow vs farrow". 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 #224,901 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.