fleevsfoieWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: flee is a verb, foie is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“flee” is a verb and “foie” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,469
“flee” frequency rank
#42,645
“foie” frequency rank
52114
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature flee foie
Definition To run away; to escape. Ellipsis of foie gras.

Letter map: flee vs foie

Shared letters muted; letters that set flee and foie apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. flee (CCVV) and foie (CVVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
flee
4 ch
foie

Role in the sentence - flee and foie

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: flee is averb and foieanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52114, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

flee is recorded at frequency rank #9,469, classified as averb, pronounced /fliː/. foie is at rank #42,645, tagged as anoun.

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 52114, this pair ranks #159,754 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of flee vs foie

Shared letters: ef. Private to "flee": l. Private to "foie": io.

"flee" · 4 letters · shape CCVV  ·  "foie" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • flee ← fflee · fle · fllee · lfee
  • foie ← ffoie · fioe · foei · ofie

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "flee" for "foie" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "flee" is a verb and "foie" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "flee" vs "foie" - which ranks higher?
"flee" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,469 in our English list, against #42,645 for "foie". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "flee" and "foie".

  • Full dictionary entry for "flee" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "foie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #159,754 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "flee" and "foie" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foie vs FOMO". 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 #159,754 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