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fuzz

/fʌz/noun, verb

fuzz is spelled F-U-Z-Z: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.1 times per million words in written English, the 26,776th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, fuzz means “A frizzy mass of hair or fibre” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of fuzz is fuzzes.

How many letters and syllables are in fuzz?

Letters4: F-U-Z-Z
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing1.1 times per million words; the 26,776th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is fuzz?

Fuzz appears 1.1 times per million words in written English, the 26,776th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce fuzz?

  • /fʌz/

Fuzz has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-fuzz.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of fuzz

  • fuzzes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • fuzzing participle, present
  • fuzzed participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does fuzz mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A frizzy mass of hair or fibre.

  2. 2

    Quality of an image that is unclear; a blurred image.

  3. 3

    The random data used in fuzz testing.

  4. 4

    A distorted sound, especially from an electric guitar or other amplified instrument.

  5. 5

    A state of befuddlement.

  6. 6

    Fuzziness, vagueness.

  7. 7

    USslangThe police, or any law enforcement agency.

    Let's get the hell out of here before the fuzz turns up

verb

  1. 1

    To make fuzzy.

  2. 2

    To become fuzzy.

  3. 3

    datedTo make drunk.

  4. 4

    To test a software component by running it on randomly generated input.

  5. 5

    datedTo fly off in minute particles with a fizzing sound, like water from hot metal.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Fuzz in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchduvet (frizzy mass), flicaille, flics, poulets (the police (slang))
Spanishpelusa, vello (frizzy mass), pasma, chota, bofia, madero (the police (slang))

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does fuzz come from?

Uncertain. Some dictionaries suggest a Germanic source; compare Low German fussig (“loose; spongy”), Dutch voos (“unsound; rotten”). Others, such as Webster's New College Dictionary, suggest a back-formation from fuzzy. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests, “Perhaps imitative of the action of blowing away light particles.”

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after fuzz