Which to use
“fooled” is a verb and “fools” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,980
- “fooled” frequency rank
- #8,541
- “fools” frequency rank
- 21521
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fooled | fools |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of fool | plural of fool |
Where the eye mixes fooled and fools
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: fooled vs fools
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fooled is /fuːld/ while fools is /fuːlz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21521, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fooled is recorded at frequency rank #12,980, classified as averb, pronounced /fuːld/. fools is at rank #8,541, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fuːlz/.
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 21521, this pair ranks #423,283 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of fooled vs fools
Shared letters: flo. Private to "fooled": de. Private to "fools": s.
"fooled" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "fools" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fooled" and "fools" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "fooled" vs "fools" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "fooled" and "fools" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fooled" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fools" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #423,283 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fooled" and "fools" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fooled vs Foyle". 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 #423,283 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.