Which to use
“fellow” is a noun and “felon” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,791
- “fellow” frequency rank
- #23,270
- “felon” frequency rank
- 25061
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fellow | felon |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A companion; a comrade. | Of a person or animal, their actions, thoughts, etc.: brutal, cruel, harsh, heartless; also, evil, wicked. |
Where the eye mixes fellow and felon
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fellow is /ˈfɛləʊ/ while felon is /ˈfɛlən/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25061, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fellow is recorded at frequency rank #1,791, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɛləʊ/. felon is at rank #23,270, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈfɛlən/.
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 25061, this pair ranks #397,239 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fellow vs felon
Shared letters: eflo. Private to "fellow": w. Private to "felon": n.
"fellow" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "felon" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC