feuvsfraWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#43,641
“feu” frequency rank
#25,765
“fra” frequency rank
69406
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature feu fra
Definition Land held in feudal tenure. A title of a friar or monk: brother.

Where the eye mixes feu and fra

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. feu (CVV) and fra (CCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

3 ch
feu
3 ch
fra

Look-alike desk: feu vs fra

A purely visual mix-up. feu (/fjuː/) and fra (/fɹɑː/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69406, 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/. fra is at rank #25,765, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fɹɑː/.

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 69406, this pair ranks #54,699 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of feu vs fra

Shared letters: f. Private to "feu": eu. Private to "fra": ar.

"feu" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "fra" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "feu" and "fra" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/fjuː/ versus /fɹɑː/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "feu" vs "fra" - which ranks higher?
"fra" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,765 in our English list, against #43,641 for "feu". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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 "fra" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #54,699 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "feu" and "fra" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "feu vs foh". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #54,699 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