fieldvsfiendWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#571
“field” frequency rank
#25,384
“fiend” frequency rank
25955
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature field fiend
Definition A land area free of woodland, cities, and towns; an area of open country. A devil or demon; a malignant or diabolical being; an evil spirit.

Where the eye mixes field and fiend

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
field
5 ch
fiend

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. field (/ˈfi(ː)ld/) and fiend (/fiːnd/) 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 a single letter - l in “field” becomes n in “fiend”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25955, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

field is recorded at frequency rank #571, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfi(ː)ld/. fiend is at rank #25,384, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fiːnd/.

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 25955, this pair ranks #390,344 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of field vs fiend

Shared letters: defi. Private to "field": l. Private to "fiend": n.

"field" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "fiend" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fieldfeild · ffield · fiedl · fieldd · fielld · ifeld
  • fiendfeind · ffiend · fiedn · fiendd · fiennd · ifend

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "field" and "fiend" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈfi(ː)ld/ versus /fiːnd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "field" or "fiend"?
"field" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #571 in our English list, against #25,384 for "fiend". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list