fanvsfungConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#1,270
“fan” frequency rank
#30,806
“fung” frequency rank
32076
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fan fung
Definition A hand-held device consisting of concertinaed material, or slats of material, gathered together at one end, that may be opened out into the shape of a sector of a circle and waved back and forth in order to move air towards oneself and cool oneself. Fungus.

Letter map: fan vs fung

Shared letters muted; letters that set fan and fung apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
fan
4 ch
fung

Spelling & dictionary notes on fan vs fung

fan and fung 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 32076, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fan is recorded at frequency rank #1,270, classified as anoun, pronounced /fæn/. fung is at rank #30,806, tagged as anoun.

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 32076, this pair ranks #340,833 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fan vs fung

Shared letters: fn. Private to "fan": a. Private to "fung": gu.

"fan" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "fung" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fungffung · fnug · fugn · fungg · funng · ufng

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fan" and "fung" be used interchangeably?
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: "fan" vs "fung" - which ranks higher?
"fan" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,270 in our English list, against #30,806 for "fung". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

You've compared "fan" and "fung". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fung" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #340,833 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fan" and "fung" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fenn vs fung". 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 #340,833 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