# faith

> English word · Noun · IPA /feɪθ/ · frequency rank #1,597

## Definitions
1. A trust or confidence in the intentions or abilities of a person, object, or ideal from prior empirical evidence.
2. A conviction about abstractions, ideas, or beliefs, without empirical evidence, experience, or observation.
3. A religious or spiritual belief system.
4. An obligation of loyalty or fidelity and the observance of such an obligation.
5. Credibility or truth.

## Etymology
From Middle English faith (also fay), borrowed from Old French fei, feid, from Latin fidem. Displaced native Old English ġelēafa, which was also a word for belief.
* Old French had [θ] as a final devoiced allophone of /ð/ from lenited Latin /d/; this eventually fell silent in the 12th century. The -th of the Middle English forms is most straightforwardly accounted for as a direct borrowing of a French [θ]. However, it has also been seen as arising from alteration of a French form with -d under influence of English abstract nouns in the suffix -th (e.g., truth, ruth, health, etc.), or as a recharacterization of a French form like fay, fey, fei with the same suffix. Compare Champenois fiate, fiaite, showing the same preservation of the final consonant.

## Easily confused with
- **fit** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/faith-vs-fit)
- **fat** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/faith-vs-fat)
- **fast** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/faith-vs-fast)
- **fish** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/faith-vs-fish)
- **fate** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/faith-vs-fate)
- **fits** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/faith-vs-fits)
- **fart** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/faith-vs-fart)
- **fats** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/faith-vs-fats)
- **Fata** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/faith-vs-fata)
- **fifth** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/faith-vs-fifth)
- **forth** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/faith-vs-forth)
- **fatty** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/faith-vs-fatty)
- **Fritz** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/faith-vs-fritz)
- **filth** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/faith-vs-filth)
- **fitch** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/faith-vs-fitch)
- **farts** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/faith-vs-farts)
- **firth** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/faith-vs-firth)
- **Farah** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/faith-vs-farah)
- **Fatah** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/faith-vs-fatah)
- **froth** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/faith-vs-froth)

## Common misspellings (7)
`afith`, `faiht`, `faithh`, `faitth`, `fatih`, `ffaith`, `fiath`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/faith