fas vs faux, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#47,890
“fas” frequency rank: #920
“faux” frequency rank: 48810
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	fas	faux
Definition	Face, figure, visage.	Qui n’est pas conforme, ou qui ne se conforme pas à la réalité. Quand il s’agit des idées et des sentiments, et de leur expression, il signifie que ces idées, ces sentiments ou leur expression sont contraires à la réalité par erreur ou par imposture.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set fas and faux apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch

fas

4 ch

faux

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fas is \ˈfasː\ while faux is \fo\. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48810, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fas is recorded at frequency rank #47,890, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈfasː\. faux is at rank #920, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fo\.

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 48810, this pair ranks #175,864 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fas vs faux

Shared letters: af. Private to "fas": s. Private to "faux": ux.

"fas" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "faux" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

faux ← afux · fauxx · faxu · ffaux · fuax

Frequency comparison

fas#47,890

faux#920

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fas" and "faux" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fas" is a noun and "faux" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "fas" or "faux"?

"faux" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #920 in our French list, against #47,890 for "fas". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering fas vs faux

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “fas”; for an adjective, it's “faux”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “fas” entry
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