Which to use
“favorite” and “favourite” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,139
- “favorite” frequency rank
- #2,624
- “favourite” frequency rank
- 3763
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | favorite | favourite |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | US standard spelling of favourite. | Most-liked. (In other words, [person]'s favorite [noun] = the [noun] that [person] likes the most.) |
Same sound, different letters: favorite vs favourite
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. favorite runs 8 letters (CVCVCVCV) against favourite's 9 (CVCVVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: favorite vs favourite
This is the hard kind. favorite and favourite are pronounced identically (/ˈfeɪv.ɹɪt/) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3763, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
favorite is recorded at frequency rank #1,139, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈfeɪv.ɹɪt/. favourite is at rank #2,624, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈfeɪv.ɹɪt/.
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 3763, this pair ranks #521,078 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of favorite vs favourite
Shared letters: aefiortv. Private to "favorite": -. Private to "favourite": u.
"favorite" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV · "favourite" · 9 letters · shape CVCVVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "favorite" and "favourite" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "favorite" or "favourite"?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "favorite" / "favourite". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "favorite" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "favourite" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #521,078 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "favorite" and "favourite" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "favoring vs favorite". 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 #521,078 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.