featvsfeteConfusable pair

Which to use

“feat” and “fete” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#7,227
“feat” frequency rank
#42,639
“fete” frequency rank
49866
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature feat fete
Definition A relatively rare or difficult accomplishment. A festival open to the public, the proceeds from which are often given to charity.

Where the eye mixes feat and fete

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. feat (CVVC) and fete (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
feat
4 ch
fete

Visual trap between feat and fete

A purely visual mix-up. feat (/fiːt/) and fete (/feɪt/) 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 49866, 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/. fete is at rank #42,639, tagged as anoun, pronounced /feɪt/.

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 49866, this pair ranks #179,554 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of feat vs fete

Shared letters: eft. Private to "feat": a. Private to "fete": -.

"feat" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "fete" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • feat ← efat · featt · ffeat
  • fete ← efte · fette · ffete · ftee

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "feat" for "fete" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/fiːt/ versus /feɪt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "feat" vs "fete" - which ranks higher?
"feat" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,227 in our English list, against #42,639 for "fete". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "feat" and "fete" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "feat" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fete" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #179,554 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "feat" and "fete" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fenn vs fete". 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 #179,554 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