Which to use
“Farah” is a name and “foray” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #23,536
- “Farah” frequency rank
- #27,464
- “foray” frequency rank
- 51000
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Farah | foray |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A surname from Arabic. | A sudden or irregular incursion in border warfare; hence, any irregular incursion for war or spoils; a raid. |
Where the eye mixes Farah and foray
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Farah (CVCVC) and foray (CVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between Farah and foray
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Farah is /ˈfærə/ while foray is /ˈfɒɹ.eɪ/. 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 (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51000, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Farah is recorded at frequency rank #23,536, classified as aname, pronounced /ˈfærə/. foray is at rank #27,464, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɒɹ.eɪ/.
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 51000, this pair ranks #169,264 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Farah vs foray
Shared letters: afr. Private to "Farah": h. Private to "foray": oy.
"Farah" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "foray" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Farah" for "foray" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "Farah" or "foray" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "Farah" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "foray" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #169,264 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Farah" and "foray" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Farah vs Fars". 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 #169,264 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.