fenvsfeudWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“fen” and “feud” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#35,717
“fen” frequency rank
#12,598
“feud” frequency rank
48315
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fen feud
Definition A type of wetland fed by ground water and runoff, containing peat below the waterline, characteristically alkaline. A state of long-standing mutual hostility.

Where the eye mixes fen and feud

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
fen
4 ch
feud

Look-alike desk: fen vs feud

A purely visual mix-up. fen (/fɛn/) and feud (/fjuːd/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48315, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fen is recorded at frequency rank #35,717, classified as anoun, pronounced /fɛn/. feud is at rank #12,598, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fjuːd/.

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 48315, this pair ranks #194,260 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fen vs feud

Shared letters: ef. Private to "fen": n. Private to "feud": du.

"fen" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "feud" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • feudefud · fedu · feudd · ffeud · fued

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fen" and "feud" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/fɛn/ versus /fjuːd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "fen" or "feud" show up more?
"feud" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,598 in our English list, against #35,717 for "fen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "feud" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #194,260 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fen" and "feud" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fen vs foh". 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 #194,260 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