Which to use
“faulted” and “fouled” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #40,692
- “faulted” frequency rank
- #26,431
- “fouled” frequency rank
- 67123
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | faulted | fouled |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of fault | simple past and past participle of foul |
Letter map: faulted vs fouled
Shared letters muted; letters that set faulted and fouled apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. faulted runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against fouled's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Pair insight - faulted / fouled
faulted and fouled are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67123, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
faulted is recorded at frequency rank #40,692, classified as averb. fouled is at rank #26,431, tagged as averb, pronounced /faʊld/.
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 67123, this pair ranks #64,813 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of faulted vs fouled
Shared letters: deflu. Private to "faulted": at. Private to "fouled": o.
"faulted" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "fouled" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "faulted" for "fouled" ever safe?
Frequency check: "faulted" vs "fouled" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
You've compared "faulted" and "fouled". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "faulted" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fouled" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #64,813 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "faulted" and "fouled" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "faulted vs fluted". 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 #64,813 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.