Which to use
“feu” and “flea” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #43,641
- “feu” frequency rank
- #16,711
- “flea” frequency rank
- 60352
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | feu | flea |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Land held in feudal tenure. | A small, wingless, parasitic insect of the order Siphonaptera, renowned for its bloodsucking habits and jumping abilities. |
Where the eye mixes feu and flea
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. feu runs 3 letters (CVV) against flea's 4 (CCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses feu with flea
A purely visual mix-up. feu (/fjuː/) and flea (/fliː/) 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 60352, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
feu is recorded at frequency rank #43,641, classified as anoun, pronounced /fjuː/. flea is at rank #16,711, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fliː/.
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 60352, this pair ranks #100,649 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of feu vs flea
Shared letters: ef. Private to "feu": u. Private to "flea": al.
"feu" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "flea" · 4 letters · shape CCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- flea ← fflea · flae · fllea · lfea
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "feu" and "flea" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "feu" or "flea"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "feu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "flea" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #100,649 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "feu" and "flea" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "feu 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 #100,649 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.