Which to use
“fees” is a noun and “fewest” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,831
- “fees” frequency rank
- #27,834
- “fewest” frequency rank
- 30665
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fees | fewest |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of fee | superlative degree of few; the smallest number. |
Letter map: fees vs fewest
Shared letters muted; letters that set fees and fewest apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. fees runs 4 letters (CVVC) against fewest's 6 (CVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Role in the sentence - fees and fewest
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: fees is anoun and fewestadeterminer. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30665, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fees is recorded at frequency rank #2,831, classified as anoun, pronounced /fiːz/. fewest is at rank #27,834, tagged as adet.
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 30665, this pair ranks #352,668 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fees vs fewest
Shared letters: efs. Private to "fees": -. Private to "fewest": tw.
"fees" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "fewest" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fees" and "fewest" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "fees" or "fewest" show up more?
What to do next
Pair "fees" vs "fewest" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "fees" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fewest" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #352,668 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fees" and "fewest" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fees vs Fenn". 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 #352,668 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.