Which to use
“foie” is a noun and “foiled” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #42,645
- “foie” frequency rank
- #29,659
- “foiled” frequency rank
- 72304
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | foie | foiled |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ellipsis of foie gras. | simple past and past participle of foil |
Letter map: foie vs foiled
Shared letters muted; letters that set foie and foiled apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. foie runs 4 letters (CVVV) against foiled's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Role in the sentence - foie and foiled
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: foie is anoun and foiledaverb. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72304, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
foie is recorded at frequency rank #42,645, classified as anoun. foiled is at rank #29,659, tagged as averb, pronounced /fɔɪld/.
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 72304, this pair ranks #43,503 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of foie vs foiled
Shared letters: efio. Private to "foie": -. Private to "foiled": dl.
"foie" · 4 letters · shape CVVV · "foiled" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "foie" for "foiled" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "foie" or "foiled" show up more?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "foie" and "foiled".
- Full dictionary entry for "foie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "foiled" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #43,503 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "foie" and "foiled" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foie 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 #43,503 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.