Which to use
“filth” and “fists” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,914
- “filth” frequency rank
- #16,470
- “fists” frequency rank
- 33384
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | filth | fists |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Dirt; foul matter; that which soils or defiles. | plural of fist |
Where the eye mixes filth and fists
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. filth and fists follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: filth vs fists
A purely visual mix-up. filth (/fɪlθ/) and fists (/fɪsts/) 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 33384, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
filth is recorded at frequency rank #16,914, classified as anoun, pronounced /fɪlθ/. fists is at rank #16,470, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fɪsts/.
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 33384, this pair ranks #329,906 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of filth vs fists
Shared letters: fit. Private to "filth": hl. Private to "fists": s.
"filth" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC · "fists" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "filth" and "fists" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "filth" or "fists"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "filth" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fists" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #329,906 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "filth" and "fists" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "filth vs frith". 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 #329,906 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.