feetvsfreeWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#1,105
“feet” frequency rank
#211
“free” frequency rank
1316
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature feet free
Definition plural of foot Unconstrained.

Where the eye mixes feet and free

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
feet
4 ch
free

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: feet is /fiːt/ while free is /fɹiː/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1316, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

feet is recorded at frequency rank #1,105, classified as anoun, pronounced /fiːt/. free is at rank #211, tagged as anadj, pronounced /fɹiː/.

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 1316, this pair ranks #527,661 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of feet vs free

Shared letters: ef. Private to "feet": t. Private to "free": r.

"feet" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "free" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • feetefet · feett · ffeet
  • freefere · ffree · fre · frree · rfee

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "feet" and "free" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "feet" is a noun and "free" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "feet" or "free"?
"free" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #211 in our English list, against #1,105 for "feet". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list