favourvsflavourWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#4,235
“favour” frequency rank
#10,695
“flavour” frequency rank
14930
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature favour flavour
Definition British standard spelling of favor. British standard spelling of flavor.

Letter map: favour vs flavour

Shared letters muted; letters that set favour and flavour apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. favour runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against flavour's 7 (CCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
favour
7 ch
flavour

Pair insight - favour / flavour

favour and flavour are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14930, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

favour is recorded at frequency rank #4,235, classified as anoun. flavour is at rank #10,695, tagged as anoun.

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 14930, this pair ranks #467,095 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of favour vs flavour

Shared letters: aforuv. Private to "favour": -. Private to "flavour": l.

"favour" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "flavour" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • favour ← afvour · faovur · favoru · favourr · favuor · favvour · ffavour · fvaour
  • flavour ← falvour · fflavour · flaovur · flavoru · flavourr · flavuor · flavvour · fllavour

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "favour" for "flavour" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "favour" vs "flavour" - which ranks higher?
"favour" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,235 in our English list, against #10,695 for "flavour". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "favour" and "flavour".

  • Full dictionary entry for "favour" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "flavour" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #467,095 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "favour" and "flavour" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fervour vs flavour". 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 #467,095 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