fartsvsfitsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#22,669
“farts” frequency rank
#4,527
“fits” frequency rank
27196
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature farts fits
Definition plural of fart plural of fit

Where the eye mixes farts and fits

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

5 ch
farts
4 ch
fits

Look-alike desk: farts vs fits

A purely visual mix-up. farts (/fɑːɹts/) and fits (/fɪts/) 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 27196, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

farts is recorded at frequency rank #22,669, classified as anoun, pronounced /fɑːɹts/. fits is at rank #4,527, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fɪts/.

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 27196, this pair ranks #380,812 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of farts vs fits

Shared letters: fst. Private to "farts": ar. Private to "fits": i.

"farts" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "fits" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fartsafrts · farrts · farst · fartss · fartts · fatrs · ffarts · frats
  • fitsffits · fitss · fitts · ftis · ifts

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "farts" for "fits" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/fɑːɹts/ versus /fɪts/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "farts" or "fits" show up more?
"fits" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,527 in our English list, against #22,669 for "farts". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "farts" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fits" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #380,812 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "farts" and "fits" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fars vs farts". 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 #380,812 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