favesvsfixesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#34,484
“faves” frequency rank
#13,150
“fixes” frequency rank
47634
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature faves fixes
Definition plural of fave plural of fix

Where the eye mixes faves and fixes

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

5 ch
faves
5 ch
fixes

Why the eye confuses faves with fixes

A purely visual mix-up. faves (/feɪvz/) and fixes (/ˈfɪksɪz/) 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 47634, 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/. fixes is at rank #13,150, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɪksɪz/.

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 47634, this pair ranks #200,609 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of faves vs fixes

Shared letters: efs. Private to "faves": av. Private to "fixes": ix.

"faves" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "fixes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • favesafves · faevs · favess · favse · favves · ffaves · fvaes
  • fixesffixes · fiexs · fixess · fixse · fixxes · fxies · ifxes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "faves" and "fixes" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/feɪvz/ versus /ˈfɪksɪz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "faves" vs "fixes" - which ranks higher?
"fixes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,150 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.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "faves" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fixes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #200,609 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "faves" and "fixes" 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 #200,609 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