Which to use
“foreboding” is a noun and “foregoing” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #37,462
- “foreboding” frequency rank
- #26,091
- “foregoing” frequency rank
- 63553
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | foreboding | foregoing |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A sense of evil to come. | Occurring before or in front of something else, in time, place, rank or sequence. |
Letter map: foreboding vs foregoing
Shared letters muted; letters that set foreboding and foregoing apart highlighted. Shared run: 8.
Part-of-speech tell for foreboding / foregoing
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: foreboding is anoun and foregoinganadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63553, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
foreboding is recorded at frequency rank #37,462, classified as anoun. foregoing is at rank #26,091, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˌfɔː(ɹ)ˈɡəʊ.ɪŋ/.
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 63553, this pair ranks #82,333 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of foreboding vs foregoing
Shared letters: efginor. Private to "foreboding": bd. Private to "foregoing": -.
"foreboding" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVCVCC · "foregoing" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- foreboding ← fforeboding · foerboding · forbeoding · forebboding · forebdoing · forebodding · forebodign · forebodingg
- foregoing ← fforegoing · foergoing · foreggoing · foregiong · foregoign · foregoingg · foregoinng · foregonig
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "foreboding" for "foregoing" ever safe?
Which is more common, "foreboding" or "foregoing"?
Useful next steps
Pair "foreboding" vs "foregoing" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "foreboding" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "foregoing" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #82,333 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "foreboding" and "foregoing" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foregoing vs foregone". 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 #82,333 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.