foodvsfundWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#386
“food” frequency rank
#1,600
“fund” frequency rank
1986
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature food fund
Definition Any solid substance that can be consumed by living organisms, especially by eating, in order to sustain life. A sum or source of money.

Where the eye mixes food and fund

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
food
4 ch
fund

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. food (/fuːd/) and fund (/ˈfʌnd/) 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 1986, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

food is recorded at frequency rank #386, classified as anoun, pronounced /fuːd/. fund is at rank #1,600, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfʌnd/.

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 1986, this pair ranks #526,122 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of food vs fund

Shared letters: df. Private to "food": o. Private to "fund": nu.

"food" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "fund" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • foodffood · fod · fodo · foodd · ofod
  • fundffund · fnud · fudn · fundd · funnd · ufnd

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "food" and "fund" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/fuːd/ versus /ˈfʌnd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "food" or "fund"?
"food" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #386 in our English list, against #1,600 for "fund". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list