FISvsFOSSWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#40,245
“FIS” frequency rank
#33,655
“FOSS” frequency rank
73900
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature FIS FOSS
Definition Initialism of flight information service. Initialism of Free and Open Source Software.

Letter map: FIS vs FOSS

Shared letters muted; letters that set FIS and FOSS apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. FIS runs 3 letters (CVC) against FOSS's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
FIS
4 ch
FOSS

Pair insight - FIS / FOSS

FIS and FOSS 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 73900, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

FIS is recorded at frequency rank #40,245, classified as anoun. FOSS is at rank #33,655, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fɒs/.

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 73900, this pair ranks #38,051 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of FIS vs FOSS

Shared letters: fs. Private to "FIS": i. Private to "FOSS": o.

"FIS" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "FOSS" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • FOSS ← ffoss · fos · fsos · ofss

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "FIS" for "FOSS" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary English text, does "FIS" or "FOSS" show up more?
"FOSS" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,655 in our English list, against #40,245 for "FIS". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "FIS" vs "FOSS" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "FIS" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "FOSS" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #38,051 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "FIS" and "FOSS" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "FIS vs foh". 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 #38,051 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