Which to use
“fake” and “foe” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,251
- “fake” frequency rank
- #14,761
- “foe” frequency rank
- 17012
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fake | foe |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Not real; false, fraudulent. | Hostile. |
Where the eye mixes fake and foe
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. fake (/feɪ̯k/) and foe (/fəʊ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17012, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fake is recorded at frequency rank #2,251, classified as anadj, pronounced /feɪ̯k/. foe is at rank #14,761, tagged as anadj, pronounced /fəʊ/.
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 17012, this pair ranks #454,180 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of fake vs foe
Shared letters: ef. Private to "fake": ak. Private to "foe": o.
"fake" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "foe" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- fake ← afke · faek · fakke · ffake · fkae