Which to use
“field” and “friend” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #571
- “field” frequency rank
- #420
- “friend” frequency rank
- 991
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | field | friend |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A land area free of woodland, cities, and towns; an area of open country. | A person, typically someone other than a family member, spouse or lover, whose company one enjoys and towards whom one feels affection. |
Where the eye mixes field and friend
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. field (/ˈfi(ː)ld/) and friend (/fɹɛnd/) 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 991, 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/. friend is at rank #420, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fɹɛnd/.
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 991, this pair ranks #528,355 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of field vs friend
Shared letters: defi. Private to "field": l. Private to "friend": nr.
"field" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "friend" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC