faerie
"faerie" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“faerie” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #40,691 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #40,691
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 9
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Archaic spelling of fairy.
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 | faerie |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #40,691 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 9 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “faerie” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for faerie is 6 letters long, classified as a noun. Corpus data places it at rank #40,691 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for faerie, with forms such as "aferie", "faeire", and "faerei". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 9 confusable-pair relationships, "fare", "farce", "Favre", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: A deliberately archaic spelling of fairy (attested since the 1300s in spellings like fairye, fayre), based on Old French faerie, used in 1590 by Edmund Spenser in The Faerie Queene. The correct English form is faerie, spelled F-A-E-R-I-E.
Definition
- 1Archaic spelling of fairy.
- 2Realm of the fays, fairyland.
Etymology
A deliberately archaic spelling of fairy (attested since the 1300s in spellings like fairye, fayre), based on Old French faerie, used in 1590 by Edmund Spenser in The Faerie Queene.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: aferie,faeire,faerei,faerrie,fareie,fearie,ffaerie
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of faerie - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "faerie"?
What does "faerie" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "faerie"?
What is the origin of the word "faerie"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “faerie”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-A-E-R-I-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “fare” - see the side-by-side comparison. faerie vs fare
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.