Forego or forgo?
forego is a verb meaning “To precede, to go before”; forgo is a verb meaning “To do without (something enjoyable); to relinquish”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) forgo is about as common as forego.
What is the difference between forego and forgo?
| forego | forgo | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb | verb |
| Meaning | To precede, to go before | To do without (something enjoyable); to relinquish To refrain from, to abstain from |
| Example | none recorded | I've had to forgo my student discount in exchange for taking the job |
| Forms | foregoes, foregoing, forewent, foregone | forgoes, forgoing, forwent, forgone |
| Pronunciation | /fɔɹˈɡoʊ/ /fɔːˈɡəʊ/ | /fɔːˈɡəʊ/ /fɔɹˈɡoʊ/ |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words | about once in every 1 million words |
Sources: forego and forgo in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of forego and forgo
forego
- 1
To precede, to go before
forgo
- 1
To do without (something enjoyable); to relinquish
I've had to forgo my student discount in exchange for taking the job
- 2
To refrain from, to abstain from
I shall forgo actually stepping inside, thank you
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, forego or forgo?
forego appears about once in every 1 million words; forgo about once in every 1 million words.
forego about once in every 1 million wordsforgo about once in every 1 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search forego vs forgo?
“forego vs forgo” is searched about 1,600 times a month on Google and 240 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“forgo vs forego”, “forego or forgo”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.