fiendvsfindsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#25,384
“fiend” frequency rank
#2,443
“finds” frequency rank
27827
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Where the eye mixes fiend and finds

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

5 ch
fiend
5 ch
finds

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. fiend (/fiːnd/) and finds (/faɪndz/) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27827, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fiend is recorded at frequency rank #25,384, classified as anoun, pronounced /fiːnd/. finds is at rank #2,443, tagged as anoun, pronounced /faɪndz/.

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 27827, this pair ranks #375,796 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fiend vs finds

Shared letters: dfin. Private to "fiend": e. Private to "finds": s.

"fiend" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "finds" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fiendfeind · ffiend · fiedn · fiendd · fiennd · ifend
  • findsffinds · fidns · findds · findss · finnds · finsd · fnids · ifnds

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fiend" and "finds" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/fiːnd/ versus /faɪndz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "fiend" or "finds"?
"finds" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,443 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