Which to use
“favour” is a noun and “favoured” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,235
- “favour” frequency rank
- #13,915
- “favoured” frequency rank
- 18150
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | favour | favoured |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | British standard spelling of favor. | Treated or regarded with partiality. |
Letter map: favour vs favoured
Shared letters muted; letters that set favour and favoured apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. favour runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against favoured's 8 (CVCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Grammar separator: favour vs favoured
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: favour is anoun and favouredanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “favour” sits inside “favoured”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18150, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
favour is recorded at frequency rank #4,235, classified as anoun. favoured is at rank #13,915, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈfeɪ.vɚd/.
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 18150, this pair ranks #446,813 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of favour vs favoured
Shared letters: aforuv. Private to "favour": -. Private to "favoured": de.
"favour" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "favoured" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "favour" and "favoured" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "favour" vs "favoured" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "favour" and "favoured".
- Full dictionary entry for "favour" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "favoured" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #446,813 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "favour" and "favoured" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "favour vs fervour". 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 #446,813 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.