fohvsfooWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: foh is a intj, foo is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“foh” is an intj and “foo” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#49,923
“foh” frequency rank
#18,562
“foo” frequency rank
68485
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature foh foo
Definition An exclamation of abhorrence or contempt. Alternative form of fu: an administrative subdivision of imperial China; the capital of such divisions.

Letter map: foh vs foo

Shared letters muted; letters that set foh and foo apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
foh
3 ch
foo

Part-of-speech tell for foh / foo

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: foh is anintj and fooanoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - h in “foh” becomes o in “foo”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68485, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

foh is recorded at frequency rank #49,923, classified as anintj. foo is at rank #18,562, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fuː/.

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 68485, this pair ranks #58,672 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of foh vs foo

Shared letters: fo. Private to "foh": h. Private to "foo": -.

"foh" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "foo" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "foh" for "foo" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "foh" is an intj and "foo" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "foh" or "foo" show up more?
"foo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,562 in our English list, against #49,923 for "foh". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "foh" and "foo".

  • Full dictionary entry for "foh" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "foo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #58,672 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "foh" and "foo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foh vs FOMO". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #58,672 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