Which to use
“fears” and “feels” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,416
- “fears” frequency rank
- #1,338
- “feels” frequency rank
- 6754
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fears | feels |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of fear | plural of feel, sensory perceptions that mainly or solely involve the sense of touch |
Where the eye mixes fears and feels
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: fears vs feels
A purely visual mix-up. fears (/fɪəz/) and feels (/fiːlz/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6754, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fears is recorded at frequency rank #5,416, classified as anoun, pronounced /fɪəz/. feels is at rank #1,338, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fiːlz/.
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 6754, this pair ranks #510,122 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of fears vs feels
Shared letters: efs. Private to "fears": ar. Private to "feels": l.
"fears" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "feels" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fears" and "feels" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "fears" or "feels"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "fears" and "feels" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fears" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "feels" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #510,122 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fears" and "feels" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fars vs fears". 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 #510,122 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.