Which to use
“fool” is a noun and “fou” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,378
- “fool” frequency rank
- #48,244
- “fou” frequency rank
- 52622
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fool | fou |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A person with poor judgment or little intelligence. | Drunk. |
Letter map: fool vs fou
Shared letters muted; letters that set fool and fou apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: fool is anoun and fouanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52622, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fool is recorded at frequency rank #4,378, classified as anoun, pronounced /fuːl/. fou is at rank #48,244, tagged as anadj.
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 52622, this pair ranks #155,553 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fool vs fou
Shared letters: fo. Private to "fool": l. Private to "fou": u.
"fool" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "fou" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- fool ← ffool · fol · folo · fooll · ofol