Which to use
“fled” and “flew” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,573
- “fled” frequency rank
- #5,497
- “flew” frequency rank
- 12070
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fled | flew |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of flee | simple past of fly |
Where the eye mixes fled and flew
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: fled vs flew
A purely visual mix-up. fled (/ˈflɛd/) and flew (/fluː/) 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 a single letter - d in “fled” becomes w in “flew”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12070, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fled is recorded at frequency rank #6,573, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈflɛd/. flew is at rank #5,497, tagged as averb, pronounced /fluː/.
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 12070, this pair ranks #483,612 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of fled vs flew
Shared letters: efl. Private to "fled": d. Private to "flew": w.
"fled" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "flew" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fled" and "flew" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "fled" vs "flew" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "fled" and "flew" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fled" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "flew" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #483,612 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fled" and "flew" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "flaked vs fled". 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 #483,612 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.