feuvsfoxWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“feu” and “fox” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#43,641
“feu” frequency rank
#2,204
“fox” frequency rank
45845
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature feu fox
Definition Land held in feudal tenure. 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:

Where the eye mixes feu and fox

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
feu
3 ch
fox

Visual trap between feu and fox

A purely visual mix-up. feu (/fjuː/) and fox (/fɒks/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45845, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

feu is recorded at frequency rank #43,641, classified as anoun, pronounced /fjuː/. 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 45845, this pair ranks #217,356 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of feu vs fox

Shared letters: f. Private to "feu": eu. Private to "fox": ox.

"feu" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "fox" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "feu" and "fox" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/fjuː/ versus /fɒks/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "feu" vs "fox" - which ranks higher?
"fox" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,204 in our English list, against #43,641 for "feu". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "feu" 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 #217,356 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "feu" and "fox" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "feu vs foh". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #217,356 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