Which to use
“find” is a verb and “food” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,055
- “find” frequency rank
- #7,772
- “food” frequency rank
- 16827
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | find | food |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | encontrar | alimento |
Where the eye mixes find and food
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. find (CVCC) and food (CVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between find and food
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: find is /ˈfaɪnd/ while food is /fud/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16827, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
find is recorded at frequency rank #9,055, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈfaɪnd/. food is at rank #7,772, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fud/.
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 16827, this pair ranks #54,616 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of find vs food
Shared letters: df. Private to "find": in. Private to "food": o.
"find" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "food" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "find" for "food" ever safe?
Which is more common, "find" or "food"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "find" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "food" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #54,616 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "find" and "food" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "find vs finta". 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 #54,616 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.