Which to use
“flown” is a verb and “frown” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,179
- “flown” frequency rank
- #20,641
- “frown” frequency rank
- 29820
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | flown | frown |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | past participle of fly | A wrinkling of the forehead with the eyebrows brought together, typically indicating displeasure, severity, or concentration. |
Where the eye mixes flown and frown
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. flown and frown follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses flown with frown
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: flown is /ˈfləʊn/ while frown is /fɹaʊn/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - l in “flown” becomes r in “frown”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29820, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
flown is recorded at frequency rank #9,179, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈfləʊn/. frown is at rank #20,641, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fɹaʊn/.
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 29820, this pair ranks #359,722 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of flown vs frown
Shared letters: fnow. Private to "flown": l. Private to "frown": r.
"flown" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "frown" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "flown" and "frown" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "flown" or "frown"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "flown" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "frown" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #359,722 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "flown" and "frown" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Frome vs frown". 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 #359,722 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.