Which to use
“faires” and “fairy” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #46,749
- “faires” frequency rank
- #33,679
- “fairy” frequency rank
- 80428
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | faires | fairy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Accusatif neutre singulier de la déclinaison forte de fair. | Féerique. |
Where the eye mixes faires and fairy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. faires runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against fairy's 5 (CVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between faires and fairy
A purely visual mix-up. faires (\ˈfɛːʁəs\) and fairy (\ˈfɛɹ.i\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80428, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
faires is recorded at frequency rank #46,749, classified as anadj, pronounced \ˈfɛːʁəs\. fairy is at rank #33,679, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ˈfɛɹ.i\.
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 80428, this pair ranks #20,962 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of faires vs fairy
Shared letters: afir. Private to "faires": es. Private to "fairy": y.
"faires" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "fairy" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "faires" for "fairy" ever safe?
Frequency check: "faires" vs "fairy" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "faires" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fairy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #20,962 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "faires" and "fairy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "faires vs fakes". 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 #20,962 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.