Which to use
“fear” and “fears” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,184
- “fear” frequency rank
- #5,416
- “fears” frequency rank
- 6600
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fear | fears |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A strong, unpleasant emotion or feeling caused by actual or perceived danger or threat. | plural of fear |
Where the eye mixes fear and fears
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. fear (/fɪə/) and fears (/fɪəz/) 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 extra letter(s) - “fear” sits inside “fears”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6600, 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/. fears is at rank #5,416, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fɪəz/.
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 6600, this pair ranks #510,776 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of fear vs fears
Shared letters: aefr. Private to "fear": -. Private to "fears": s.
"fear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "fears" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC