Which to use
“foregoing” is an adjective and “foregone” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #26,091
- “foregoing” frequency rank
- #38,843
- “foregone” frequency rank
- 64934
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | foregoing | foregone |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Occurring before or in front of something else, in time, place, rank or sequence. | past participle of forego |
Where the eye mixes foregoing and foregone
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between foregoing and foregone
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: foregoing is /ˌfɔː(ɹ)ˈɡəʊ.ɪŋ/ while foregone is /ˈfɔɹɡɔn/. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64934, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
foregoing is recorded at frequency rank #26,091, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˌfɔː(ɹ)ˈɡəʊ.ɪŋ/. 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 64934, this pair ranks #75,260 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of foregoing vs foregone
Shared letters: efgnor. Private to "foregoing": i. Private to "foregone": -.
"foregoing" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVVCC · "foregone" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "foregoing" and "foregone" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "foregoing" vs "foregone" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "foregoing" 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 #75,260 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "foregoing" and "foregone" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "forego 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 #75,260 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.