Which to use
“fève” and “fever” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #37,822
- “fève” frequency rank
- #46,168
- “fever” frequency rank
- 83990
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fève | fever |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nom vernaculaire de Vicia faba, plante herbacées annuelle de la famille des Fabacées (Fabaceae, au port érigé, pouvant atteindre 2 mètre de haut et que l’on cultive pour sa graine comestible. | Fièvre. |
Where the eye mixes fève and fever
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. fève 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.
Why the eye confuses fève with fever
A purely visual mix-up. fève (\fɛv\) 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 83990, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fève is recorded at frequency rank #37,822, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɛv\. 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 83990, this pair ranks #13,792 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of fève vs fever
Shared letters: efv. Private to "fève": è. Private to "fever": r.
"fève" · 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
Do "fève" and "fever" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "fève" or "fever" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "fève" 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 #13,792 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fève" 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 #13,792 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.