ef
/ˈɛf/
"ef" is a 2-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ef” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #20,103) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #20,103
- frequency rank, English
- 2,246
- “E” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The name of the Latin script letter F/f.
Corpus desk
Index EN-ef · ef · English
ef · rank #20,103 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #20,103
- LEN-SHORT 2 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,246
- PHOTO-FINISH electronically
Nearest frequency peer: electronically (+1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbours of confusable “ef”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- dreamer
dreamer
79,902 corpus weight
- dune
dune
79,901 corpus weight
- ef
ef
79,898 corpus weight
- electronica…
electronically
79,897 corpus weight
- emancipation
emancipation
79,896 corpus weight
- entropy
entropy
79,895 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “ef” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ef |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɛf/ |
| Letters | 2 |
| Frequency rank | #20,103 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “ef”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for ef is neighbouring look-alikes ("ex", "et", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /ˈɛf/. Frequency #20,103 among 2,246 “E” headwords. Gloss: "The name of the Latin script letter F/f.".
ef has no tracked misspelling variants, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ex", "et", "EU", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is ef, spelled E-F.
Definition
- 1The name of the Latin script letter F/f.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how ef appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I have drunk en-ee-cee-tee-ay-ar from the ef-ell-oh-doubleyou-ee-ar-ess in his gee-ay-ar-dee-ee-en many a time.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.