feovsfonoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: feo is a adjective, fono is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“feo” is an adjective and “fono” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,556
“feo” frequency rank
#40,847
“fono” frequency rank
44403
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature feo fono
Definition Que carece de belleza o hermosura. Dispositivo de telecomunicación que recibe y transmite sonido, codificado como impulsos eléctricos, mediante un cable o una señal de radio, permitiendo así la comunicación entre ubicaciones distantes

Where the eye mixes feo and fono

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
feo
4 ch
fono

Visual trap between feo and fono

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: feo is [ˈfeo] while fono is [ˈfono]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44403, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

feo is recorded at frequency rank #3,556, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈfeo]. fono is at rank #40,847, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈfono].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 44403, this pair ranks #137,267 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of feo vs fono

Shared letters: fo. Private to "feo": e. Private to "fono": n.

"feo" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "fono" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fonoffono · fnoo · fonno · foon · ofno

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "feo" for "fono" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "feo" is an adjective and "fono" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "feo" or "fono"?
"feo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,556 in our Spanish list, against #40,847 for "fono". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "feo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fono" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #137,267 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "feo" and "fono" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fono vs fora". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #137,267 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list