flungvsfoundWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#18,828
“flung” frequency rank
#197
“found” frequency rank
19025
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature flung found
Definition simple past and past participle of fling simple past and past participle of find

Where the eye mixes flung and found

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
flung
5 ch
found

Visual trap between flung and found

A purely visual mix-up. flung (/ˈflʌŋ/) and found (/faʊnd/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19025, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

flung is recorded at frequency rank #18,828, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈflʌŋ/. found is at rank #197, tagged as averb, pronounced /faʊnd/.

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 19025, this pair ranks #441,008 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of flung vs found

Shared letters: fnu. Private to "flung": gl. Private to "found": do.

"flung" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "found" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • flungfflung · fllung · flnug · flugn · flungg · flunng · fulng · lfung
  • foundffound · fonud · foudn · foundd · founnd · fuond · ofund

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "flung" and "found" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈflʌŋ/ versus /faʊnd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "flung" or "found"?
"found" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #197 in our English list, against #18,828 for "flung". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "flung" and "found" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "flung" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "found" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #441,008 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "flung" and "found" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Flagg vs flung". 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 #441,008 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