Which to use
“FOSS” and “furs” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #33,655
- “FOSS” frequency rank
- #28,931
- “furs” frequency rank
- 62586
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | FOSS | furs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Initialism of Free and Open Source Software. | plural of fur |
Where the eye mixes FOSS and furs
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. FOSS and furs follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses FOSS with furs
A purely visual mix-up. FOSS (/fɒs/) and furs (/fɝz/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62586, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
FOSS is recorded at frequency rank #33,655, classified as anoun, pronounced /fɒs/. furs is at rank #28,931, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fɝz/.
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 62586, this pair ranks #87,688 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of FOSS vs furs
Shared letters: fs. Private to "FOSS": o. Private to "furs": ru.
"FOSS" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "furs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "FOSS" for "furs" ever safe?
Frequency check: "FOSS" vs "furs" - 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 "FOSS" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "furs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #87,688 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "FOSS" and "furs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "FOMO vs FOSS". 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 #87,688 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.