fava
/ˈfɑː.və/
"fava" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“fava” is uncommon English (frequency #66,656 among 2,507 “F” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #66,656
- frequency rank, English
- 2,507
- “F” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A fava bean; a bean (seed or seed pod) of plants of species Vicia faba or the plant itself.
Corpus desk
Index EN-fava · fava · English
fava · rank #66,656 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #66,656
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,507
- PHOTO-FINISH fatalism
Nearest frequency peer: fatalism (-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.
Long-tail ranks near “fava”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- fash
fash
33,347 corpus weight
- fatalism
fatalism
33,346 corpus weight
- fava
fava
33,345 corpus weight
- feminized
feminized
33,344 corpus weight
- ferromagnet…
ferromagnetic
33,343 corpus weight
- fidgety
fidgety
33,342 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “fava” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | fava |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈfɑː.və/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #66,656 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “fava” in English
Rare enough to double-check
fava is uncommon English at frequency #66,656 among 2,507 “F” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈfɑː.və/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A fava bean; a bean (seed or seed pod) of plants of species Vicia faba or the plant itself.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for fava in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Italian fava. Cognate with Portuguese fava and Spanish haba (“broad bean”). Doublet of bean. The correct English form is fava, spelled F-A-V-A.
Definition
- 1A fava bean; a bean (seed or seed pod) of plants of species Vicia faba or the plant itself.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how fava appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
1976, I. I. Gottesman, J. Shields, Rejoinder: Toward optimal arousal and away from original din, Schizophrenia Buletin, 2: 447-453, quoted in 2004, Jay Joseph, The Gene Illusion, page 269, Favism, a hemolytic anemia that follows the eating of fava or broadbeans, provides a textbook example of a genotype X environment interaction.
When spring arrives the fava arrives and everyone in the Mediterranean can dream up a way of cooking it.
Etymology
Borrowed from Italian fava. Cognate with Portuguese fava and Spanish haba (“broad bean”). Doublet of bean.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "fava", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).