Which to use
“fairy” is an adjective and “family” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #26,385
- “fairy” frequency rank
- #7,156
- “family” frequency rank
- 33541
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fairy | family |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | de fadas, feérico | família |
Where the eye mixes fairy and family
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. fairy runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against family's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses fairy with family
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fairy is /ˈfɛəɹɪ/ while family is /ˈfæm(ɪ)li/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33541, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fairy is recorded at frequency rank #26,385, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈfɛəɹɪ/. family is at rank #7,156, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfæm(ɪ)li/.
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 33541, this pair ranks #33,949 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fairy vs family
Shared letters: afiy. Private to "fairy": r. Private to "family": lm.
"fairy" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "family" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fairy" for "family" ever safe?
Frequency check: "fairy" vs "family" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "fairy" and "family" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fairy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "family" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #33,949 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fairy" and "family" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "faia vs fairy". 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 #33,949 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.