Which to use
“febre” is a noun and “fern” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,152
- “febre” frequency rank
- #48,930
- “fern” frequency rank
- 53082
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | febre | fern |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | elevação da temperatura corporal como reação do organismo a uma doença | longe, distante, longínquo |
Where the eye mixes febre and fern
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. febre runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against fern's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: febre vs fern
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: febre is /ˈfɛ.bɾi/ while fern is /fɛʀn/ ouvir^(fonte ?). 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53082, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
febre is recorded at frequency rank #4,152, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɛ.bɾi/. fern is at rank #48,930, tagged as anadj, pronounced /fɛʀn/ ouvir^(fonte ?).
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 53082, this pair ranks #12,293 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of febre vs fern
Shared letters: efr. Private to "febre": b. Private to "fern": n.
"febre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "fern" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "febre" for "fern" ever safe?
Which is more common, "febre" or "fern"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "febre" and "fern" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "febre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fern" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #12,293 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "febre" and "fern" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fern vs fon". 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 #12,293 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.