Which to use
“fugue” and “fume” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #40,254
- “fugue” frequency rank
- #45,384
- “fume” frequency rank
- 85638
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fugue | fume |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A contrapuntal piece of music wherein a particular melody is played in a number of voices, each voice introduced in turn by playing the melody. | A gas or vapour/vapor that is strong-smelling or dangerous to inhale. |
Where the eye mixes fugue and fume
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. fugue runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against fume's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: fugue vs fume
A purely visual mix-up. fugue (/ˈfyɡ/) and fume (/fjuːm/) 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 85638, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fugue is recorded at frequency rank #40,254, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfyɡ/. fume is at rank #45,384, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fjuːm/.
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 85638, this pair ranks #10,074 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of fugue vs fume
Shared letters: efu. Private to "fugue": g. Private to "fume": m.
"fugue" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "fume" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fugue" for "fume" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "fugue" or "fume" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "fugue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fume" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #10,074 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fugue" and "fume" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "FOMO vs fume". 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 #10,074 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.