FES vs flees, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“FES” is a noun and “flees” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,812
“FES” frequency rank: #33,653
“flees” frequency rank: 73465
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	FES	flees
Definition	Initialism of floppy eyelid syndrome	third-person singular simple present indicative of flee

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set FES and flees apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch

FES

5 ch

flees

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: FES is anoun and fleesaverb. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73465, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

FES is recorded at frequency rank #39,812, classified as anoun. flees is at rank #33,653, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈfliːz/.

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 73465, this pair ranks #39,524 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of FES vs flees

Shared letters: efs. Private to "FES": -. Private to "flees": l.

"FES" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "flees" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

flees ← fflees · fleess · fles · flese · fllees · lfees

Frequency comparison

FES#39,812

flees#33,653

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "FES" and "flees" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "FES" is a noun and "flees" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "FES" or "flees"?

"flees" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,653 in our English list, against #39,812 for "FES". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering FES vs flees

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “FES”; for a verb, it's “flees”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “FES” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable