Which to use
“fever” and “fèves” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #46,168
- “fever” frequency rank
- #26,017
- “fèves” frequency rank
- 72185
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fever | fèves |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Fièvre. | Pluriel de fève. |
Where the eye mixes fever and fèves
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses fever with fèves
A purely visual mix-up. fever (\ˈfiːvə\) and fèves (\fɛv\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72185, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fever is recorded at frequency rank #46,168, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈfiːvə\. fèves is at rank #26,017, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɛv\.
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 72185, this pair ranks #44,899 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of fever vs fèves
Shared letters: efv. Private to "fever": r. Private to "fèves": sè.
"fever" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "fèves" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- fever ← efver · feevr · feverr · fevre · fevver · ffever · fveer
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fever" and "fèves" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "fever" or "fèves"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "fever" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fèves" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #44,899 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fever" and "fèves" 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 #44,899 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.