Which to use
“fear” and “fey” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #33,681
- “fear” frequency rank
- #46,760
- “fey” frequency rank
- 80441
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fear | fey |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Peur. | Cône. |
Where the eye mixes fear and fey
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. fear runs 4 letters (CVVC) against fey's 3 (CVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses fear with fey
A purely visual mix-up. fear (\ˈfɪə(ɹ)\) and fey (\fɛj\) 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 80441, 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)\. fey is at rank #46,760, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɛj\.
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 80441, this pair ranks #20,913 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of fear vs fey
Shared letters: ef. Private to "fear": ar. Private to "fey": y.
"fear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "fey" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- fear ← efar · faer · fearr · ffear
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fear" for "fey" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "fear" or "fey" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "fear" and "fey" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fey" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #20,913 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fear" and "fey" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs fey". 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 #20,913 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.