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PlainSpell

favor

fa·vor/ˈfeɪ.vɚ/noun, verb

favor is a noun meaning “A kind or helpful deed; an instance of voluntarily assisting (someone)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled F-A-V-O-R and has 2 syllables (fa·vor), and it appears 38 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of favor is favors.

What does favor mean?

noun

  1. 1

    A kind or helpful deed; an instance of voluntarily assisting (someone).

    He did me a favor when he took the time to drive me home.

  2. 2

    Goodwill; benevolent regard.

    She enjoyed the queen's favor.

  3. 3

    A small gift; a party favor.

    wedding favor

  4. 4

    Mildness or mitigation of punishment; lenity.

  5. 5

    The object of regard; person or thing favoured.

  6. 6

    obsoleteAppearance; look; countenance; face.

  7. 7

    Partiality; bias

  8. 8

    archaicA letter, a written communication.

verb

  1. 1

    To look upon fondly; to prefer.

  2. 2

    To use more often.

  3. 3

    To encourage, conduce to

  4. 4

    To do a favor [noun sense 1] for; to show beneficence toward.

    Would you favor us with a poetry reading?

  5. 5

    To resemble; especially, to look like (another person).

  6. 6

    To treat or use (something) gently

    I always try to favor my bad knee.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce favor?

  • UK /ˈfeɪ.və/
  • US /ˈfeɪ.vɚ/

Favor has 2 syllables, split fa·vor in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-favor.ogg, En-us-favour.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-favor.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of favor

  • favors plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • favour
  • favoring participle, present
  • favored participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is favor?

Favor appears 38 times per million words in written English, the 2,581st most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Favor in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchfaveur (kind or helpful deed), favoriser (to look upon fondly; to prefer)
GermanGefallen, Gefälligkeit, Dienst (kind or helpful deed), Gunst, Gnade, Huld (goodwill; benevolent regard)
Portuguesefavor (kind or helpful deed), favorecer (to look upon fondly; to prefer)
Spanishfavor (kind or helpful deed), favorecer (to look upon fondly; to prefer)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does favor come from?

From Middle English favour, favor, faver, from Anglo-Norman favour, from mainland Old French favor, from Latin favor (“good will; kindness; partiality”), from faveō (“to be kind to”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂weh₁yeti (“to be favourable to”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- (“to shine, glow light”). Respelled in American English to more closely match its Latin etymon.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).