facevsfumeConfusable pair

Which to use

“face” and “fume” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,395
“face” frequency rank
#32,617
“fume” frequency rank
34012
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature face fume
Definition parte do corpo humano onde se encontram os olhos, nariz e boca gás ou vapor com cheiro forte e perigoso de inalar. São partículas sólidas formadas por condensação do estado gasoso, por exemplo, óxidos de metais volatilizados.

Letter map: face vs fume

Shared letters muted; letters that set face and fume apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. face and fume follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
face
4 ch
fume

Spelling & dictionary notes on face vs fume

face and fume are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34012, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

face is recorded at frequency rank #1,395, classified as anoun. fume is at rank #32,617, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fjuːm/.

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 34012, this pair ranks #33,362 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of face vs fume

Shared letters: ef. Private to "face": ac. Private to "fume": mu.

"face" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "fume" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • face ← afce · facce · faec · fcae · fface
  • fume ← ffume · fmue · fuem · fumme · ufme

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "face" for "fume" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "face" or "fume"?
"face" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,395 in our Portuguese list, against #32,617 for "fume". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

You've compared "face" and "fume". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "face" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fume" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #33,362 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "face" and "fume" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fuck vs fume". 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 #33,362 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list