Which to use
“foe” is an adjective and “fox” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #14,761
- “foe” frequency rank
- #2,204
- “fox” frequency rank
- 16965
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | foe | fox |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Hostile. | A small-to-medium-sized canine mammal, related to dogs and wolves, with a flattened skull, upright triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail, of the following groups: |
Where the eye mixes foe and fox
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: foe vs fox
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: foe is /fəʊ/ while fox is /fɒks/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “foe” becomes x in “fox”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16965, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
foe is recorded at frequency rank #14,761, classified as anadj, pronounced /fəʊ/. fox is at rank #2,204, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fɒks/.
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 16965, this pair ranks #454,466 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of foe vs fox
Shared letters: fo. Private to "foe": e. Private to "fox": x.
"foe" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "fox" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "foe" for "fox" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "foe" or "fox" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "foe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fox" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #454,466 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "foe" and "fox" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foe vs FOMO". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #454,466 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.