flea

/fliː/

//fliː// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"flea" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“flea” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #16,711) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#16,711
frequency rank, English
2,507
“F” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A small, wingless, parasitic insect of the order Siphonaptera, renowned for its bloodsucking habits and jumping abilities.

Corpus desk

Index EN-flea · flea · English

flea · rank #16,711 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #16,711
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,507
  • PHOTO-FINISH fishes

Nearest frequency peer: fishes (-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 neighbours of confusable “flea”

Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below

corpus weight

What this shows Bars place “flea” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

flea vs fly
50% similar
flea vs flu
50% similar
flea vs foe
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for flea
PropertyValue
Headwordflea
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/fliː/
Letters4
Frequency rank#16,711
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Corpus rank beside confusables of “flea”

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).flealands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Same rarity band neighbours include “fishes” (#16,710), “footwear” (#16,712), “filler” (#16,709). Among 2,507 “F” headwords, “flea” is #16,711. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for flea is neighbouring look-alikes ("fly", "flu", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /fliː/. Frequency #16,711 among 2,507 “F” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for flea, with forms such as "fflea", "flae", and "fllea". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "fly", "flu", "foe", 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 fle, from Old English flēah, flēa, from Proto-West Germanic *flauh, from Proto-Germanic *flauhaz (compare West Frisian flie, Low German Flo, Flö, Dutch vlo, German Floh, Icelandic fló), from pre-Germanic *plóukos, *plówkos, from or akin … The correct English form is flea, spelled F-L-E-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    A small, wingless, parasitic insect of the order Siphonaptera, renowned for its bloodsucking habits and jumping abilities.
  2. 2
    A thing of no significance.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how flea appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. The nation of beggars on horseback which first colonized California has left behind it many traditions unworthy of conservation, and multitudinous fleas not at all traditional, but even less keepworthy […]

Etymology

From Middle English fle, from Old English flēah, flēa, from Proto-West Germanic *flauh, from Proto-Germanic *flauhaz (compare West Frisian flie, Low German Flo, Flö, Dutch vlo, German Floh, Icelandic fló), from pre-Germanic *plóukos, *plówkos, from or akin to Proto-Indo-European *plúsis (compare Latin pulex, Sanskrit प्लुषि (plúṣi)). The archaic plural fleen is from Middle English fleen, flen, from Old English flēan (“fleas”).

This word in other languages

pulga(Español)puce(Français)Floh(Deutsch)pulga(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • fflea
  • flae
  • fllea
  • lfea

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of flea - 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.

fflea1flae2fllea1lfea2
Edit distance from "flea"

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

How do you spell "flea"?
"flea" is spelled F-L-E-A. The IPA pronunciation is /fliː/.
What does "flea" mean?
As a noun, "flea" means: A small, wingless, parasitic insect of the order Siphonaptera, renowned for its bloodsucking habits and jumping abilities.
What words are commonly confused with "flea"?
"flea" is commonly confused with "fly", "flu", "foe". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "flea"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "flea" is /fliː/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "flea"?
From Middle English fle, from Old English flēah, flēa, from Proto-West Germanic *flauh, from Proto-Germanic *flauhaz (compare West Frisian flie, Low German Flo, Flö, Dutch vlo, German Floh, Icelandic fló), from pre-Germanic *plóukos, *plówkos, fro... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "flea", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

haze#16,723hemp#16,726diva#16,693defy#16,683

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list