fazevsfrozeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#32,393
“faze” frequency rank
#16,716
“froze” frequency rank
49109
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature faze froze
Definition To frighten or cause hesitation; to daunt, put off (usually used in the negative); to disconcert, to perturb. simple past of freeze

Where the eye mixes faze and froze

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. faze runs 4 letters (CVCV) against froze's 5 (CCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
faze
5 ch
froze

Look-alike desk: faze vs froze

A purely visual mix-up. faze (/feɪz/) and froze (/ˈfɹəʊz/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49109, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

faze is recorded at frequency rank #32,393, classified as averb, pronounced /feɪz/. froze is at rank #16,716, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈfɹəʊz/.

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 49109, this pair ranks #186,741 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of faze vs froze

Shared letters: efz. Private to "faze": a. Private to "froze": or.

"faze" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "froze" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • faze ← afze · faez · fazze · ffaze · fzae
  • froze ← ffroze · forze · froez · frozze · frroze · frzoe · rfoze

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "faze" for "froze" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/feɪz/ versus /ˈfɹəʊz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "faze" or "froze"?
"froze" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,716 in our English list, against #32,393 for "faze". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "faze" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "froze" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #186,741 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "faze" and "froze" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fars vs faze". 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 #186,741 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