few
/fjuː/
"few" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“few” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #226 in English word frequency and used as a determiner.
- #226
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An indefinite, but usually small, number of.
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 | few |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Determiner |
| IPA | /fjuː/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #226 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “few” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for few is 3 letters long, classified as a determiner, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /fjuː/. Corpus data places it at rank #226 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for few, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. 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: From Middle English fewe, from Old English fēaw (“few”), from Proto-West Germanic *fau, from Proto-Germanic *fawaz (“few”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂w- (“few, small”). Cognate with Old Saxon fā (“few”), Old High German fao, fō (“few, little”), Old Nors… The correct English form is few, spelled F-E-W.
Definition
- 1An indefinite, but usually small, number of.
- 2Not many; a small (in comparison with another number stated or implied) but somewhat indefinite number of.
- 3Obscuring one to two oktas (eighths) of the sky.
- 4(US?) Having a 10 percent chance of measurable precipitation (0.01 inch); used interchangeably with isolated.
Etymology
From Middle English fewe, from Old English fēaw (“few”), from Proto-West Germanic *fau, from Proto-Germanic *fawaz (“few”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂w- (“few, small”). Cognate with Old Saxon fā (“few”), Old High German fao, fō (“few, little”), Old Norse fár (“few”), Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌿𐍃 (faus, “few”). Also related with Latin paucus (“little, few”) and pauper (“poor”), from which latter English poor and pauper; see these.
Synonyms
Antonyms
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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Using “few”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-E-W - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /fjuː/ (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. few 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.