Which to use
“fête” and “fever” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #943
- “fête” frequency rank
- #46,168
- “fever” frequency rank
- 47111
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fête | fever |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Jour consacré particulièrement à des actes de religion, cérémonies religieuses par lesquelles on célèbre ce jour. | Fièvre. |
Where the eye mixes fête and fever
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. fête runs 4 letters (CVCV) against fever's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between fête and fever
A purely visual mix-up. fête (\fɛt\) and fever (\ˈfiːvə\) 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 47111, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fête is recorded at frequency rank #943, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɛt\. fever is at rank #46,168, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈfiːvə\.
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 47111, this pair ranks #189,511 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fête vs fever
Shared letters: ef. Private to "fête": tê. Private to "fever": rv.
"fête" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "fever" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- fever ← efver · feevr · feverr · fevre · fevver · ffever · fveer
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fête" for "fever" ever safe?
Which is more common, "fête" or "fever"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "fête" and "fever" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fête" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fever" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #189,511 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fête" and "fever" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs fever". 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 #189,511 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.