FESvsfeteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#39,812
“FES” frequency rank
#42,639
“fete” frequency rank
82451
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature FES fete
Definition Initialism of floppy eyelid syndrome A festival open to the public, the proceeds from which are often given to charity.

Letter map: FES vs fete

Shared letters muted; letters that set FES and fete apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. FES runs 3 letters (CVC) against fete's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
FES
4 ch
fete

Spelling & dictionary notes on FES vs fete

FES and fete are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82451, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

FES is recorded at frequency rank #39,812, classified as anoun. fete is at rank #42,639, tagged as anoun, pronounced /feɪt/.

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 82451, this pair ranks #15,704 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of FES vs fete

Shared letters: ef. Private to "FES": s. Private to "fete": t.

"FES" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "fete" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fete ← efte · fette · ffete · ftee

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "FES" and "fete" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "FES" vs "fete" - which ranks higher?
"FES" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #39,812 in our English list, against #42,639 for "fete". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "FES" vs "fete" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "FES" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fete" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #15,704 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "FES" and "fete" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fenn vs fete". 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 #15,704 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