flavorvsflavourConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#6,687
“flavor” frequency rank
#10,695
“flavour” frequency rank
17382
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature flavor flavour
Definition The quality produced by the sensation of taste or, especially, of taste and smell in combined effect. British standard spelling of flavor.

Letter map: flavor vs flavour

Shared letters muted; letters that set flavor and flavour apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. flavor runs 6 letters (CCVCVC) against flavour's 7 (CCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
flavor
7 ch
flavour

Pair insight - flavor / flavour

flavor and flavour are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17382, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

flavor is recorded at frequency rank #6,687, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfleɪvə/. flavour is at rank #10,695, tagged as anoun.

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 17382, this pair ranks #451,780 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of flavor vs flavour

Shared letters: aflorv. Private to "flavor": -. Private to "flavour": u.

"flavor" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "flavour" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • flavor ← falvor · fflavor · flaovr · flavorr · flavro · flavvor · fllavor · flvaor
  • flavour ← falvour · fflavour · flaovur · flavoru · flavourr · flavuor · flavvour · fllavour

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "flavor" and "flavour" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "flavor" vs "flavour" - which ranks higher?
"flavor" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,687 in our English list, against #10,695 for "flavour". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "flavor" and "flavour".

  • Full dictionary entry for "flavor" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "flavour" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #451,780 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "flavor" and "flavour" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Flavia vs flavor". 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 #451,780 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