fare

/fɛə/

//fɛə// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"fare" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“fare” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #7,790) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#7,790
frequency rank, English
2,507
“F” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A going; journey; travel; voyage; course; passage.

Corpus desk

Index EN-fare · fare · English

fare · rank #7,790 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #7,790
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,507
  • PHOTO-FINISH fashioned

Nearest frequency peer: fashioned (+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 “fare”

Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below

corpus weight

What this shows Bars place “fare” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

fare vs Fe
25% similar
fare vs for
50% similar
fare vs fat
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for fare
PropertyValue
Headwordfare
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/fɛə/
Letters4
Frequency rank#7,790
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Corpus rank beside confusables of “fare”

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).farelands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Same rarity band neighbours include “fashioned” (#7,791), “dull” (#7,788), “feared” (#7,792). Among 2,507 “F” headwords, “fare” is #7,790. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for fare is neighbouring look-alikes ("Fe", "for", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /fɛə/. Frequency #7,790 among 2,507 “F” headwords. 6 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for fare, with forms such as "afre", "farre", and "ffare". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Fe", "for", "fat", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English fare, from a merger of Old English fær (“journey, road”) and faru (“journey, companions, baggage”), from Proto-Germanic *farą and *farō (“journey, fare”), from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“a going, passage”). The correct English form is fare, spelled F-A-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    A going; journey; travel; voyage; course; passage.
  2. 2
    Money paid for a transport ticket.
  3. 3
    A paying passenger, especially in a taxi.
  4. 4
    Food and drink.
  5. 5
    Supplies for consumption or pleasure.
  6. 6
    A prostitute's client.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how fare appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. thoroughfare
  2. “[…] She takes the whole thing with desperate seriousness. But the others are all easy and jovial—thinking about the good fare that is soon to be eaten, about the hired fly, about anything.”

Etymology

From Middle English fare, from a merger of Old English fær (“journey, road”) and faru (“journey, companions, baggage”), from Proto-Germanic *farą and *farō (“journey, fare”), from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“a going, passage”).

This word in other languages

pasaje(Español)tarif(Français)Reise(Deutsch)tarifa(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • afre
  • farre
  • ffare
  • frae

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of fare - 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.

afre2farre1ffare1frae2
Edit distance from "fare"

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 "fare"?
"fare" is spelled F-A-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is /fɛə/.
What does "fare" mean?
As a noun, "fare" means: A going; journey; travel; voyage; course; passage.
What words are commonly confused with "fare"?
"fare" is commonly confused with "Fe", "for", "fat". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "fare"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "fare" is /fɛə/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "fare"?
From Middle English fare, from a merger of Old English fær (“journey, road”) and faru (“journey, companions, baggage”), from Proto-Germanic *farą and *farō (“journey, fare”), from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“a going, passage”). See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "fare", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

dull#7,788idol#7,802leap#7,808anal#7,767

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list