fearvsferasConfusable pair

Quick tell: fear is a noun, feras is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fear” is a noun and “feras” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,681
“fear” frequency rank
#9,831
“feras” frequency rank
43512
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fear feras
Definition Peur. Deuxième personne du singulier du futur de faire.

Where the eye mixes fear and feras

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
fear
5 ch
feras

Why the eye confuses fear with feras

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fear is \ˈfɪə(ɹ)\ while feras is \fə.ʁa\. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43512, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fear is recorded at frequency rank #33,681, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈfɪə(ɹ)\. feras is at rank #9,831, tagged as averb, pronounced \fə.ʁa\.

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 43512, this pair ranks #217,488 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fear vs feras

Shared letters: aefr. Private to "fear": -. Private to "feras": s.

"fear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "feras" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fearefar · faer · fearr · ffear
  • ferasefras · fears · ferass · ferras · fersa · fferas · freas

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fear" for "feras" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fear" is a noun and "feras" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "fear" or "feras"?
"feras" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,831 in our French list, against #33,681 for "fear". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "feras" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #217,488 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fear" and "feras" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fear vs Fee". 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 #217,488 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list