Which to use
“fear” is a noun and “feared” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,184
- “fear” frequency rank
- #7,792
- “feared” frequency rank
- 8976
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fear | feared |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A strong, unpleasant emotion or feeling caused by actual or perceived danger or threat. | Pertaining to someone or thing that causes great fear in others. |
Where the eye mixes fear and feared
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between fear and feared
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fear is /fɪə/ while feared is /fɪɹd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “fear” sits inside “feared”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8976, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fear is recorded at frequency rank #1,184, classified as anoun, pronounced /fɪə/. feared is at rank #7,792, tagged as anadj, pronounced /fɪɹd/.
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 8976, this pair ranks #499,726 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of fear vs feared
Shared letters: aefr. Private to "fear": -. Private to "feared": d.
"fear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "feared" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fear" for "feared" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "fear" or "feared" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "fear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "feared" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #499,726 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fear" and "feared" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "feared vs flaked". 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 #499,726 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.