Which to use
“fear” is a noun and “fray” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,184
- “fear” frequency rank
- #20,120
- “fray” frequency rank
- 21304
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fear | fray |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A strong, unpleasant emotion or feeling caused by actual or perceived danger or threat. | To rub or wear away (something); to cause (something made of strands twisted or woven together, such as cloth or rope) to unravel through friction; also, to irritate (something) through chafing or rubbing; to chafe. |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set fear and fray apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
fear and fray form a confusable pair in the English index, two distinct headwords that are easily confused because they look alike, sound alike, or both. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21304, 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/. fray is at rank #20,120, tagged as averb, pronounced /fɹeɪ/.
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 21304, this pair ranks #424,853 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "fear" and "fray" be used interchangeably?
Remembering fear vs fray
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “fear”; for a verb, it's “fray”.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “fear” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable