Faze or phase?
faze is a verb meaning “To frighten or cause hesitation; to daunt, put off (usually used in the…”; phase is a noun meaning “A distinguishable part of a sequence or cycle occurring over time”. Use faze as a verb and phase as a noun (phase is also a verb: “To begin–if construed with "in"–or to discontinue–if…”). They sound the same (/feɪz/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) phase is about 54 times as common as faze.
What is the difference between faze and phase?
| faze | phase | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb | noun, verb |
| Meaning | informalTo frighten or cause hesitation; to daunt, put off (usually used in the negative); to disconcert, to perturb | A distinguishable part of a sequence or cycle occurring over time That which is exhibited to the eye; the appearance which anything manifests, especially any one among different and varying appearances of the same object To begin–if construed with "in"–or to discontinue–if construed with out–(doing) something over a period of time (i.e. in phases) |
| Example | Jumping out of an airplane does not faze him, yet he is afraid to ride a roller coaster | The problem has many phases |
| Forms | fazes, fazing, fazed | phases |
| Pronunciation | /feɪz/ /fæɪz/ | /feɪz/ |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words | 44 times per million words |
Sources: faze and phase in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of faze and phase
faze
- 1
informalTo frighten or cause hesitation; to daunt, put off (usually used in the negative); to disconcert, to perturb
Jumping out of an airplane does not faze him, yet he is afraid to ride a roller coaster
phase
- 1
A distinguishable part of a sequence or cycle occurring over time
- 2
To begin–if construed with "in"–or to discontinue–if construed with out–(doing) something over a period of time (i.e. in phases)
The use of the obsolete machines was gradually phased out as the new models were phased in
- 3
That which is exhibited to the eye; the appearance which anything manifests, especially any one among different and varying appearances of the same object
- 4
informalTo determine haplotypes in (data) when genotypes are known
- 5
Any appearance or aspect of an object of mental apprehension or view
The problem has many phases
- 6
To pass into or through a solid object
- 7
A particular appearance or state in a regularly recurring cycle of changes with respect to quantity of illumination or form, or the absence, of a body's illuminated disk. Illustrated in Wikipedia's…
the phases of the moon
- 8
To use a phaser
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, faze or phase?
faze appears about once in every 1 million words; phase 44 times per million words.
faze about once in every 1 million wordsphase 44 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search faze vs phase?
“faze vs phase” is searched about 880 times a month on Google and 50 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“phase vs faze”, “faze or phase”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.