fear
/fɪə/
"fear" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“fear” has 5 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #1,184. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #1,184
- frequency rank, English
- 2,507
- “F” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A strong, unpleasant emotion or feeling caused by actual or perceived danger or threat.
Corpus desk
Index EN-fear · fear · English
fear · rank #1,184 · 5 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #1,184
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,507
- PHOTO-FINISH developed
Nearest frequency peer: developed (-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 neighbourhood for “fear”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- claim
claim
98,820 corpus weight
- dad
dad
98,819 corpus weight
- developed
developed
98,818 corpus weight
- fear
fear
98,817 corpus weight
- fit
fit
98,816 corpus weight
- generally
generally
98,815 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “fear” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | fear |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /fɪə/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #1,184 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “fear” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around fear (IPA /fɪə/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #1,184 among 2,507 “F” headwords. Wiktionary lists 5 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for fear, with forms such as "efar", "faer", and "fearr". 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, "for", "few", "fed", 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 feer, fere, fer (“fear”), from Old English fǣr, ġefǣr (“calamity, sudden danger, peril, sudden attack, terrible sight”), from Proto-Germanic *fērō, *fērą (“danger”), from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to go through, carry forth, try”). Cog… The correct English form is fear, spelled F-E-A-R.
Definition
- 1A strong, unpleasant emotion or feeling caused by actual or perceived danger or threat.
- 2A phobia, a sense of fear induced by something or someone in particular.
- 3Something one is afraid of; the object of one’s fear.
- 4Terrified veneration or reverence, particularly towards God, gods, or sovereigns.
- 5A feeling of dread and anxiety when waking after drinking a lot of alcohol, wondering what one did while drunk.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how fear appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
He was struck by fear on seeing the snake.
I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed.
Etymology
From Middle English feer, fere, fer (“fear”), from Old English fǣr, ġefǣr (“calamity, sudden danger, peril, sudden attack, terrible sight”), from Proto-Germanic *fērō, *fērą (“danger”), from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to go through, carry forth, try”). Cognate with Dutch gevaar (“danger, risk, peril”), German Gefahr (“danger, hazard, risk”), Danish fare (“danger, hazard, risk”), Faroese and Icelandic fár (“accident, anger, calamity”), Norwegian fare (“danger”), Swedish fara (“danger, risk, peril”), Latin perīculum (“danger, risk, trial”), Ancient Greek πεῖρα (peîra, “trial, experiment”), Armenian փորձ (pʻorj, “attempt”). Doublet of peril. The verb is from Middle English feren, from Old English fǣran (“to frighten, raven”), from the noun. Cognate with the archaic Dutch verb varen (“to fear, to cause fear”).
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- efar
- faer
- fearr
- fera
- ffear
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of fear - 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
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "fear", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "fear". Here's where to go from here.
- "fear" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "for". View pair
- 5 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #1,184 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "F" letter cohort. F–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.