FECvsfoxConfusable pair

Quick tell: FEC is a name, fox is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“FEC” is a name and “fox” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,647
“FEC” frequency rank
#2,204
“fox” frequency rank
35851
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature FEC fox
Definition Initialism of Federal Election Commission. A small-to-medium-sized canine mammal, related to dogs and wolves, with a flattened skull, upright triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail, of the following groups:

Letter map: FEC vs fox

Shared letters muted; letters that set FEC and fox apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
FEC
3 ch
fox

Role in the sentence - FEC and fox

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: FEC is aname and foxanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35851, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

FEC is recorded at frequency rank #33,647, classified as aname. fox is at rank #2,204, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fɒks/.

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 35851, this pair ranks #308,374 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of FEC vs fox

Shared letters: f. Private to "FEC": ce. Private to "fox": ox.

"FEC" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "fox" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "FEC" and "fox" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "FEC" is a name and "fox" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "FEC" or "fox" show up more?
"fox" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,204 in our English list, against #33,647 for "FEC". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "FEC" and "fox".

  • Full dictionary entry for "FEC" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fox" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #308,374 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "FEC" and "fox" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "FEC vs foh". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #308,374 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list