feather
/ˈfɛð.ə(ɹ)/
"feather" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“feather” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #11,379 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #11,379
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 8
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A branching, hair-like structure that grows on the bodies of birds, used for flight, swimming, protection and display.
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 | feather |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈfɛð.ə(ɹ)/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #11,379 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 8 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “feather” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for feather is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈfɛð.ə(ɹ)/. Corpus data places it at rank #11,379 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 11 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for feather, with forms such as "efather", "faether", and "feahter". 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 8 confusable-pair relationships, "fester", "further", "flatter", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English feþer, from Old English feþer, from Proto-West Germanic *feþru, from Proto-Germanic *feþrō, from Proto-Indo-European *péth₂r̥ (“feather, wing”), from *peth₂- (“to fly”). Cognate with West Frisian fear (“feather”), Cimbrian bèdara, fòdara… The correct English form is feather, spelled F-E-A-T-H-E-R.
Definition
- 1A branching, hair-like structure that grows on the bodies of birds, used for flight, swimming, protection and display.
- 2Long hair on the lower legs of a dog or horse, especially a draft horse, notably the Clydesdale breed. Narrowly only the rear hair.
- 3One of the fins or wings on the shaft of an arrow.
- 4A longitudinal strip projecting from an object to strengthen it, or to enter a channel in another object and thereby prevent displacement sideways or rotationally but permit motion lengthwise.
- 5Kind; nature; species (from the proverbial phrase "birds of a feather").
- 6One of the two shims of the three-piece stone-splitting tool known as plug and feather or plug and feathers; the feathers are placed in a borehole and then a wedge is driven between them, causing the stone to split.
- 7The angular adjustment of an oar or paddle-wheel float, with reference to a horizontal axis, as it leaves or enters the water.
- 8Anything petty or trifling; a whit or jot.
- 9Partridges and pheasants, as opposed to rabbits and hares (called fur).
- 10A junction indicator attached to a colour-light signal at an angle, which lights up, typically with four white lights in a row, when a diverging route is set up.
- 11A faint edge.
Etymology
From Middle English feþer, from Old English feþer, from Proto-West Germanic *feþru, from Proto-Germanic *feþrō, from Proto-Indo-European *péth₂r̥ (“feather, wing”), from *peth₂- (“to fly”). Cognate with West Frisian fear (“feather”), Cimbrian bèdara, fòdara (“pillowcase”), vèdara (“feather”), Dutch veder, veer (“feather”), German Feder (“feather”), German Low German Fedder (“feather”), Luxembourgish Fieder (“feather”), Vilamovian faoder (“feather”), Yiddish פֿעדער (feder, “feather”), Danish fjeder, fjer (“feather”), Faroese fjøður (“feather”), Icelandic fjöður (“feather”), Norwegian Bokmål fjær, fjør (“feather”), Norwegian Nynorsk fjøder, fjør (“feather”), Swedish fjäder (“feather”). Also Ancient Greek πέτομαι (pétomai, “to fly”), Albanian shpend (“bird”), Latin penna (“feather”), Old Armenian թիռ (tʻiṙ, “flight”). The sense correlated with splines and keys (noun sense 4) probably reflects analogy with the fletching sense (noun sense 3).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: efather,faether,feahter,featehr,featherr,feathher,feathre,featther,fetaher,ffeather
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of feather - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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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Using “feather”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-E-A-T-H-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈfɛð.ə(ɹ)/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “fester” - see the side-by-side comparison. feather vs fester
- 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.