feovsfoodWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#3,556
“feo” frequency rank
#14,365
“food” frequency rank
17921
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature feo food
Definition Que carece de belleza o hermosura. Comida, alimento.

Where the eye mixes feo and food

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. feo runs 3 letters (CVV) against food's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
feo
4 ch
food

Why the eye confuses feo with food

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: feo is [ˈfeo] while food is /fuːd/. 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 17921, 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]. food is at rank #14,365, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fuːd/.

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 17921, this pair ranks #270,083 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of feo vs food

Shared letters: fo. Private to "feo": e. Private to "food": d.

"feo" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "food" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • food ← ffood · fod · fodo · foodd · ofod

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "feo" and "food" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "feo" is an adjective and "food" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "feo" or "food"?
"feo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,556 in our Spanish list, against #14,365 for "food". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "food" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #270,083 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "feo" and "food" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "food 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 #270,083 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