forkvsfraWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#6,788
“fork” frequency rank
#25,765
“fra” frequency rank
32553
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fork fra
Definition Any of several types of pronged (tined) tools (physical tools), as follows: A title of a friar or monk: brother.

Where the eye mixes fork and fra

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

4 ch
fork
3 ch
fra

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. fork (/fɔːk/) and fra (/fɹɑː/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32553, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fork is recorded at frequency rank #6,788, classified as anoun, pronounced /fɔːk/. fra is at rank #25,765, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fɹɑː/.

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 32553, this pair ranks #336,820 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fork vs fra

Shared letters: fr. Private to "fork": ko. Private to "fra": a.

"fork" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "fra" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • forkffork · fokr · forkk · forrk · frok · ofrk

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fork" and "fra" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/fɔːk/ versus /fɹɑː/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "fork" or "fra"?
"fork" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,788 in our English list, against #25,765 for "fra". 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