fez

\fɛz\

/\fɛz\/ noun

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

The verdict

“fez” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #35,037) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#35,037
frequency rank, French
3,276
“F” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Couvre-chef de laine rouge ou blanche, qui a remplacé le turban dans de nombreuses communautés musulmanes.

Corpus desk

Index FR-fez · fez · French

fez · rank #35,037 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #35,037
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,276
  • PHOTO-FINISH Ferrara

Nearest frequency peer: Ferrara (-1 rank slots)

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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « fez »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « fez » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

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).

fez vs FN
0% similar
fez vs fo
33% similar
fez vs fm
33% similar

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

Key facts for fez
PropertyValue
Headwordfez
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\fɛz\
Letters3
Frequency rank#35,037
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « fez »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).fezse place ici:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « Ferrara » (#35,036), « fascicule » (#35,035), « flamber » (#35,039). Parmi 3,276 lemmes en « F », « fez » est au #35,037. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for fez is neighbouring look-alikes ("FN", "fo", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \fɛz\. Frequency #35,037 among 3,276 “F” headwords. Gloss: "Couvre-chef de laine rouge ou blanche, qui a remplacé le turban dans de nombreuses communautés musulmanes.".

fez doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "FN", "fo", "fm", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is fez, spelled F-E-Z.

Definition

  1. 1
    Couvre-chef de laine rouge ou blanche, qui a remplacé le turban dans de nombreuses communautés musulmanes.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. L’amiral Tahir-Pacha et ses officiers sont […] coiffés du fez, grand bonnet de laine rouge qu’ils enfoncent sur leurs fronts et sur leurs yeux.
  2. Le premier jour, il s’installait sur le Peyrat, au pied de l’orme de Sully, tendait une plaque de tôle, se grimait, se mettait un fez sur l’oreille et s’offrait aux jets de grosses balles bourrées de son qu’on lui envoyait de dix pas à raison de trois pour deux sous.

Synonyms

tarbouche

This word in other languages

fez(English)fez(Español)Fes(Deutsch)

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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "fez"?
"fez" is spelled F-E-Z. The IPA pronunciation is \fɛz\.
What does "fez" mean?
As a noun, "fez" means: Couvre-chef de laine rouge ou blanche, qui a remplacé le turban dans de nombreuses communautés musulmanes.
What words are commonly confused with "fez"?
"fez" is commonly confused with "FN", "fo", "fm". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "fez"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "fez" is \fɛz\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "fez" come from?
"fez" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 French words by spelling shape

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

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

GPL#35,067det#34,976deg#34,974LCD#35,122

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list