Which to use
“foes” and “fossa” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,472
- “foes” frequency rank
- #48,755
- “fossa” frequency rank
- 65227
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | foes | fossa |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of foe | A pit, groove, cavity, or depression. |
Where the eye mixes foes and fossa
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. foes runs 4 letters (CVVC) against fossa's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses foes with fossa
A purely visual mix-up. foes (/fəʊz/) and fossa (/ˈfɒsə/) 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 65227, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
foes is recorded at frequency rank #16,472, classified as anoun, pronounced /fəʊz/. fossa is at rank #48,755, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɒsə/.
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 65227, this pair ranks #73,841 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of foes vs fossa
Shared letters: fos. Private to "foes": e. Private to "fossa": a.
"foes" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "fossa" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "foes" for "fossa" ever safe?
Which is more common, "foes" or "fossa"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "foes" and "fossa" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "foes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fossa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #73,841 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "foes" and "fossa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fess vs fossa". 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 #73,841 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.