fed
/fɛd/
"fed" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“fed” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,946 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #2,946
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A federal government officer or official.
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 | fed |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /fɛd/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #2,946 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “fed” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for fed is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /fɛd/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,946 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Zero misspellings are on record for fed in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "fi", "FL", "FM", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Clipping of federal. The correct English form is fed, spelled F-E-D.
Definition
- 1A federal government officer or official.
- 2A police officer.
- 3The Canadian federal government.
Etymology
Clipping of federal.
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 “fed”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-E-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /fɛd/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “fi” - see the side-by-side comparison. fed vs fi
- 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.