Which to use
“flees” and “frees” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #33,653
- “flees” frequency rank
- #22,978
- “frees” frequency rank
- 56631
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | flees | frees |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | third-person singular simple present indicative of flee | third-person singular simple present indicative of free |
Where the eye mixes flees and frees
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. flees and frees follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between flees and frees
A purely visual mix-up. flees (/ˈfliːz/) and frees (/fɹiːz/) 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 - l in “flees” becomes r in “frees”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56631, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
flees is recorded at frequency rank #33,653, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈfliːz/. frees is at rank #22,978, tagged as averb, pronounced /fɹiːz/.
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 56631, this pair ranks #124,884 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of flees vs frees
Shared letters: efs. Private to "flees": l. Private to "frees": r.
"flees" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "frees" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "flees" for "frees" ever safe?
Frequency check: "flees" vs "frees" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "flees" and "frees" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "flees" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "frees" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #124,884 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "flees" and "frees" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fleck vs flees". 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 #124,884 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.