favesvsfecesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#34,484
“faves” frequency rank
#21,795
“feces” frequency rank
56279
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature faves feces
Definition plural of fave Digested waste material (typically solid or semi-solid) discharged from a human or other mammal's stomach to the intestines; excrement.

Where the eye mixes faves and feces

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. faves and feces follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
faves
5 ch
feces

Why the eye confuses faves with feces

A purely visual mix-up. faves (/feɪvz/) and feces (/ˈfiːsiːz/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56279, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

faves is recorded at frequency rank #34,484, classified as anoun, pronounced /feɪvz/. feces is at rank #21,795, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfiːsiːz/.

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 56279, this pair ranks #127,398 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of faves vs feces

Shared letters: efs. Private to "faves": av. Private to "feces": c.

"faves" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "feces" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • faves ← afves · faevs · favess · favse · favves · ffaves · fvaes
  • feces ← efces · fcees · fecces · fecess · fecse · feecs · ffeces

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "faves" and "feces" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/feɪvz/ versus /ˈfiːsiːz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "faves" vs "feces" - which ranks higher?
"feces" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,795 in our English list, against #34,484 for "faves". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "faves" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "feces" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #127,398 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "faves" and "feces" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fars vs faves". 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 #127,398 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