Which to use
“foal” and “fog” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #35,721
- “foal” frequency rank
- #8,288
- “fog” frequency rank
- 44009
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | foal | fog |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A young horse or other equine, especially just after birth or less than a year old. | A thick cloud that forms near the ground; the obscurity of such a cloud. |
Where the eye mixes foal and fog
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between foal and fog
A purely visual mix-up. foal (/fəʊl/) and fog (/fɒɡ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44009, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
foal is recorded at frequency rank #35,721, classified as anoun, pronounced /fəʊl/. fog is at rank #8,288, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fɒɡ/.
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 44009, this pair ranks #234,565 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of foal vs fog
Shared letters: fo. Private to "foal": al. Private to "fog": g.
"foal" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "fog" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- foal ← faol · ffoal · foall · fola · ofal
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "foal" and "fog" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "foal" or "fog" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "foal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fog" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #234,565 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "foal" and "fog" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foal 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 #234,565 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.