Which to use
“feely” and “fey” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #46,460
- “feely” frequency rank
- #29,654
- “fey” frequency rank
- 76114
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | feely | fey |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | soft; smooth; velvety | About to die; doomed; on the verge of sudden or violent death. |
Where the eye mixes feely and fey
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. feely runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against fey's 3 (CVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between feely and fey
A purely visual mix-up. feely (/ˈfiːli/) and fey (/feɪ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76114, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
feely is recorded at frequency rank #46,460, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈfiːli/. fey is at rank #29,654, tagged as anadj, pronounced /feɪ/.
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 76114, this pair ranks #31,018 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of feely vs fey
Shared letters: efy. Private to "feely": l. Private to "fey": -.
"feely" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "fey" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- feely ← efely · feelly · feelyy · feeyl · feley · fely · ffeely
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "feely" for "fey" ever safe?
Which is more common, "feely" or "fey"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "feely" and "fey" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "feely" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fey" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #31,018 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "feely" and "fey" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "feely vs Feeney". 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 #31,018 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.