fobvsFTPWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: fob is a noun, FTP is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#25,388
“fob” frequency rank
#28,555
“FTP” frequency rank
53943
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fob FTP
Definition A little pocket near the waistline of a pair of trousers or in a waistcoat or vest to hold money or valuables, especially a pocket watch. free-to-play

Where the eye mixes fob and FTP

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

3 ch
fob
3 ch
FTP

Visual trap between fob and FTP

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fob is /fɒb/ while FTP is /ˌɛf tiː ˈpiː/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53943, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fob is recorded at frequency rank #25,388, classified as anoun, pronounced /fɒb/. FTP is at rank #28,555, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˌɛf tiː ˈpiː/.

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 53943, this pair ranks #144,945 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fob vs FTP

Shared letters: f. Private to "fob": bo. Private to "FTP": pt.

"fob" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "FTP" · 3 letters · shape CCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fob" and "FTP" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fob" is a noun and "FTP" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "fob" or "FTP" show up more?
"fob" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,388 in our English list, against #28,555 for "FTP". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "fob" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "FTP" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #144,945 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fob" and "FTP" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foh vs FTP". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #144,945 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