Which to use
“firm” and “fur” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,693
- “firm” frequency rank
- #6,789
- “fur” frequency rank
- 8482
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | firm | fur |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A business partnership; the name under which it trades. | The hairy coat of various mammal species, especially when fine, soft and thick. |
Where the eye mixes firm and fur
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. firm (/fɜɹm/) and fur (/fɜː/) 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 8482, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
firm is recorded at frequency rank #1,693, classified as anoun, pronounced /fɜɹm/. fur is at rank #6,789, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fɜː/.
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 8482, this pair ranks #502,269 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of firm vs fur
Shared letters: fr. Private to "firm": im. Private to "fur": u.
"firm" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "fur" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- firm ← ffirm · fimr · firmm · firrm · frim · ifrm