Which to use
“focus” and “foes” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,077
- “focus” frequency rank
- #16,472
- “foes” frequency rank
- 17549
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | focus | foes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A point at which reflected or refracted rays of light converge. | plural of foe |
Where the eye mixes focus and foes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between focus and foes
A purely visual mix-up. focus (/ˈfəʊ.kəs/) and foes (/fəʊz/) 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 17549, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
focus is recorded at frequency rank #1,077, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfəʊ.kəs/. foes is at rank #16,472, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fəʊz/.
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 17549, this pair ranks #450,692 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of focus vs foes
Shared letters: fos. Private to "focus": cu. Private to "foes": e.
"focus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "foes" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "focus" and "foes" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "focus" or "foes"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "focus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "foes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #450,692 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "focus" and "foes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foes 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 #450,692 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.