Which to use
“forage” is a noun and “forbade” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #24,757
- “forage” frequency rank
- #27,840
- “forbade” frequency rank
- 52597
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | forage | forbade |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Fodder for animals, especially cattle and horses. | simple past of forbid |
Where the eye mixes forage and forbade
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. forage runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against forbade's 7 (CVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between forage and forbade
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: forage is /ˈfɒɹ.ɪd͡ʒ/ while forbade is /fə(ɹ)ˈbæd/. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52597, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
forage is recorded at frequency rank #24,757, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɒɹ.ɪd͡ʒ/. forbade is at rank #27,840, tagged as averb, pronounced /fə(ɹ)ˈbæd/.
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 52597, this pair ranks #155,740 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of forage vs forbade
Shared letters: aefor. Private to "forage": g. Private to "forbade": bd.
"forage" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "forbade" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "forage" for "forbade" ever safe?
Which is more common, "forage" or "forbade"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "forage" and "forbade" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "forage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "forbade" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #155,740 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "forage" and "forbade" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "folate vs forage". 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 #155,740 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.