Some readers (and editors, too!) nearly pass out when they see writers mix up these two words.

Faint generally means to deficient or barely perceptible, as in a faint light or to lose consciousness (e.g. Surprisingly, very few people ever faint during an earthquake in Los Angeles.).

Feint is to deceive through a mock action, as in The New York running back feinted going left but went right and scored.

Now that you know the difference, there’s no reason for you to ever again find these two words tricky!

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 300 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.