fealtyvsfrailtyWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#44,778
“fealty” frequency rank
#41,133
“frailty” frequency rank
85911
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fealty frailty
Definition Fidelity to one's lord or master; the feudal obligation by which the tenant or vassal was bound to be faithful to his lord. The condition quality of being frail, physically, mentally, or morally; weakness of resolution; liability to be deceived.

Where the eye mixes fealty and frailty

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. fealty runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against frailty's 7 (CCVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
fealty
7 ch
frailty

Look-alike desk: fealty vs frailty

A purely visual mix-up. fealty (/ˈfiː.əlti/) and frailty (/ˈfɹeɪlti/) 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 85911, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fealty is recorded at frequency rank #44,778, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfiː.əlti/. frailty is at rank #41,133, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɹeɪlti/.

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 85911, this pair ranks #9,669 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fealty vs frailty

Shared letters: aflty. Private to "fealty": e. Private to "frailty": ir.

"fealty" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "frailty" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fealtyefalty · faelty · feallty · fealtty · fealtyy · fealyt · featly · felaty
  • frailtyfarilty · ffrailty · fraillty · frailtty · frailtyy · frailyt · fraitly · frality

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fealty" and "frailty" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈfiː.əlti/ versus /ˈfɹeɪlti/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "fealty" or "frailty"?
"frailty" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #41,133 in our English list, against #44,778 for "fealty". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "fealty" and "frailty" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fealty" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "frailty" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #9,669 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fealty" and "frailty" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fealty vs feely". 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 #9,669 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