Which to use
“foi” and “foils” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #42,644
- “foi” frequency rank
- #36,565
- “foils” frequency rank
- 79209
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | foi | foils |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A depiction of a handshake. | plural of foil |
Letter map: foi vs foils
Shared letters muted; letters that set foi and foils apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. foi runs 3 letters (CVV) against foils's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Pair insight - foi / foils
foi and foils are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “foi” sits inside “foils”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79209, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
foi is recorded at frequency rank #42,644, classified as anoun. foils is at rank #36,565, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fɔɪlz/.
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 79209, this pair ranks #22,669 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of foi vs foils
Shared letters: fio. Private to "foi": -. Private to "foils": ls.
"foi" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "foils" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- foils ← ffoils · fiols · foills · foilss · foisl · folis · ofils
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "foi" and "foils" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "foi" or "foils"?
After this comparison
You've compared "foi" and "foils". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "foi" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "foils" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #22,669 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "foi" and "foils" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foi 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 #22,669 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.