Which to use
“forego” and “foregone” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #35,297
- “forego” frequency rank
- #38,843
- “foregone” frequency rank
- 74140
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | forego | foregone |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To precede, to go before. | past participle of forego |
Where the eye mixes forego and foregone
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. forego runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against foregone's 8 (CVCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses forego with foregone
A purely visual mix-up. forego (/fɔɹˈɡoʊ/) and foregone (/ˈfɔɹɡɔn/) 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 extra letter(s) - “forego” sits inside “foregone”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74140, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
forego is recorded at frequency rank #35,297, classified as averb, pronounced /fɔɹˈɡoʊ/. foregone is at rank #38,843, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈfɔɹɡɔn/.
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 74140, this pair ranks #37,292 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of forego vs foregone
Shared letters: efgor. Private to "forego": -. Private to "foregone": n.
"forego" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "foregone" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "forego" and "foregone" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "forego" vs "foregone" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "forego" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "foregone" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #37,292 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "forego" and "foregone" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "forego vs Fredo". 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 #37,292 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.