fo vs foe, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“fo” is a noun and “foe” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,049
“fo” frequency rank: #14,761
“foe” frequency rank: 26810
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	fo	foe
Definition	Abbreviation of folio, page and book size (10"-12.5" x 15"-20").	Hostile.

Letter map: fo vs foe

Shared letters muted; letters that set fo and foe apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

2 ch

3 ch

foe

Grammar separator: fo vs foe

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: fo is anoun and foeanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “fo” sits inside “foe”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26810, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fo is recorded at frequency rank #12,049, classified as anoun. foe is at rank #14,761, tagged as anadj, pronounced /fəʊ/.

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 26810, this pair ranks #383,911 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fo vs foe

Shared letters: fo. Private to "fo": -. Private to "foe": e.

"fo" · 2 letters · shape CV · "foe" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fo" and "foe" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fo" is a noun and "foe" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "fo" vs "foe" - which ranks higher?

"fo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,049 in our English list, against #14,761 for "foe". 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 "fo" and "foe".

Full dictionary entry for "fo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "foe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #383,911 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"fo" and "foe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foe vs FOMO". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #383,911 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.