fieldsvsfiendWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,485
“fields” frequency rank
#25,384
“fiend” frequency rank
27869
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fields fiend
Definition plural of field A devil or demon; a malignant or diabolical being; an evil spirit.

Where the eye mixes fields and fiend

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

6 ch
fields
5 ch
fiend

Why the eye confuses fields with fiend

A purely visual mix-up. fields (/fiːldz/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27869, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fields is recorded at frequency rank #2,485, classified as anoun, pronounced /fiːldz/. 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 27869, this pair ranks #375,463 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fields vs fiend

Shared letters: defi. Private to "fields": ls. Private to "fiend": n.

"fields" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC  ·  "fiend" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fieldsfeilds · ffields · fiedls · fieldds · fieldss · fiellds · fielsd · fileds
  • fiendfeind · ffiend · fiedn · fiendd · fiennd · ifend

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fields" and "fiend" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/fiːldz/ versus /fiːnd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "fields" or "fiend" show up more?
"fields" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,485 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.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fields" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fiend" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #375,463 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fields" and "fiend" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fenn vs fiend". 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 #375,463 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