featvsfecalWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: feat is a noun, fecal is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“feat” is a noun and “fecal” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,227
“feat” frequency rank
#28,545
“fecal” frequency rank
35772
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature feat fecal
Definition A relatively rare or difficult accomplishment. Of or relating to feces.

Where the eye mixes feat and fecal

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. feat runs 4 letters (CVVC) against fecal's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
feat
5 ch
fecal

Why the eye confuses feat with fecal

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: feat is /fiːt/ while fecal is /ˈfiːkəl/. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35772, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

feat is recorded at frequency rank #7,227, classified as anoun, pronounced /fiːt/. fecal is at rank #28,545, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈfiːkəl/.

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 35772, this pair ranks #309,063 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of feat vs fecal

Shared letters: aef. Private to "feat": t. Private to "fecal": cl.

"feat" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "fecal" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • feat ← efat · featt · ffeat
  • fecal ← efcal · fceal · feacl · fecall · feccal · fecla · ffecal

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "feat" and "fecal" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "feat" is a noun and "fecal" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "feat" vs "fecal" - which ranks higher?
"feat" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,227 in our English list, against #28,545 for "fecal". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "feat" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fecal" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #309,063 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "feat" and "fecal" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fecal vs foetal". 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 #309,063 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list