Which to use
“feast” is a noun and “fess” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,689
- “feast” frequency rank
- #43,640
- “fess” frequency rank
- 51329
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | feast | fess |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A holiday, festival, especially a religious one | To confess; to admit. |
Where the eye mixes feast and fess
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. feast runs 5 letters (CVVCC) against fess's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses feast with fess
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: feast is /fiːst/ while fess is /fɛs/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51329, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
feast is recorded at frequency rank #7,689, classified as anoun, pronounced /fiːst/. fess is at rank #43,640, tagged as averb, pronounced /fɛs/.
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 51329, this pair ranks #166,407 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of feast vs fess
Shared letters: efs. Private to "feast": at. Private to "fess": -.
"feast" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "fess" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "feast" and "fess" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "feast" vs "fess" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "feast" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fess" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #166,407 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "feast" and "fess" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fenn vs fess". 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 #166,407 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.