Which to use
“fei” and “feint” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #31,027
- “fei” frequency rank
- #31,489
- “feint” frequency rank
- 62516
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fei | feint |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Variante de foi | Peinture qui imite le marbre. |
Where the eye mixes fei and feint
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. fei runs 3 letters (CVV) against feint's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: fei vs feint
A purely visual mix-up. fei (\fei̯\) and feint (\fɛ̃\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “fei” sits inside “feint”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62516, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fei is recorded at frequency rank #31,027, classified as anoun, pronounced \fei̯\. feint is at rank #31,489, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɛ̃\.
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 62516, this pair ranks #86,678 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of fei vs feint
Shared letters: efi. Private to "fei": -. Private to "feint": nt.
"fei" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "feint" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- feint ← efint · feinnt · feintt · feitn · fenit · ffeint · fient
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "fei" and "feint" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "fei" vs "feint" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "fei" and "feint" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fei" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "feint" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #86,678 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fei" and "feint" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs fei". 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 #86,678 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.