Which to use
“foes” and “fox” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,472
- “foes” frequency rank
- #2,204
- “fox” frequency rank
- 18676
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | foes | fox |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of foe | 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 foes and fox
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: foes vs fox
A purely visual mix-up. foes (/fəʊz/) and fox (/fɒks/) 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 18676, 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/. 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 18676, this pair ranks #443,268 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of foes vs fox
Shared letters: fo. Private to "foes": es. Private to "fox": x.
"foes" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "fox" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- foes ← feos · ffoes · foess · fose · ofes
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "foes" for "fox" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "foes" or "fox" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "foes" and "fox" 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 "fox" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #443,268 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "foes" and "fox" 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 #443,268 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.