FEIvsfeignWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: FEI is a name, feign is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“FEI” is a name and “feign” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#22,967
“FEI” frequency rank
#48,234
“feign” frequency rank
71201
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature FEI feign
Definition Initialism of Federal Executive Institute. To make a false show or pretence of; to counterfeit or simulate.

Letter map: FEI vs feign

Shared letters muted; letters that set FEI and feign apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

3 ch
FEI
5 ch
feign

Part-of-speech tell for FEI / feign

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: FEI is aname and feignaverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “FEI” sits inside “feign”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71201, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

FEI is recorded at frequency rank #22,967, classified as aname. feign is at rank #48,234, tagged as averb, pronounced /feɪn/.

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 71201, this pair ranks #47,618 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of FEI vs feign

Shared letters: efi. Private to "FEI": -. Private to "feign": gn.

"FEI" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "feign" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • feignefign · fegin · feiggn · feignn · feing · ffeign · fiegn

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "FEI" and "feign" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "FEI" is a name and "feign" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "FEI" vs "feign" - which ranks higher?
"FEI" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,967 in our English list, against #48,234 for "feign". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "FEI" and "feign". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "FEI" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "feign" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #47,618 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "FEI" and "feign" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "feign 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 #47,618 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