forayvsfraConfusable pair

Which to use

“foray” and “fra” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#27,464
“foray” frequency rank
#25,765
“fra” frequency rank
53229
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature foray fra
Definition A sudden or irregular incursion in border warfare; hence, any irregular incursion for war or spoils; a raid. A title of a friar or monk: brother.

Where the eye mixes foray and fra

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. foray runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against fra's 3 (CCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
foray
3 ch
fra

Look-alike desk: foray vs fra

A purely visual mix-up. foray (/ˈfɒɹ.eɪ/) and fra (/fɹɑː/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53229, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

foray is recorded at frequency rank #27,464, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɒɹ.eɪ/. fra is at rank #25,765, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fɹɑː/.

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 53229, this pair ranks #150,718 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of foray vs fra

Shared letters: afr. Private to "foray": oy. Private to "fra": -.

"foray" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "fra" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • foray ← fforay · foary · forayy · forray · forya · froay · ofray

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "foray" and "fra" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈfɒɹ.eɪ/ versus /fɹɑː/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "foray" or "fra" show up more?
"fra" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,765 in our English list, against #27,464 for "foray". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "foray" and "fra" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "foray" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fra" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #150,718 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "foray" and "fra" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foh vs fra". 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 #150,718 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list