Which to use
“foundation” and “foundations” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,635
- “foundation” frequency rank
- #7,448
- “foundations” frequency rank
- 9083
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | foundation | foundations |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The act of founding, fixing, establishing, or beginning to erect. | plural of foundation |
Where the eye mixes foundation and foundations
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between foundation and foundations
A purely visual mix-up. foundation (/faʊnˈdeɪʃən/) and foundations (/faʊnˈdeɪʃənz/) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “foundation” sits inside “foundations”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9083, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
foundation is recorded at frequency rank #1,635, classified as anoun, pronounced /faʊnˈdeɪʃən/. foundations is at rank #7,448, tagged as anoun, pronounced /faʊnˈdeɪʃənz/.
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 9083, this pair ranks #499,179 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of foundation vs foundations
Shared letters: adfinotu. Private to "foundation": -. Private to "foundations": s.
"foundation" · 10 letters · shape CVVCCVCVVC · "foundations" · 11 letters · shape CVVCCVCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- foundation ← ffoundation · fonudation · foudnation · founadtion · foundaiton · foundasion · foundatino · foundationn
- foundations ← ffoundations · fonudations · foudnations · founadtions · foundaitons · foundatinos · foundationns · foundationss
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "foundation" for "foundations" ever safe?
Which is more common, "foundation" or "foundations"?
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 "foundation" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "foundations" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #499,179 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "foundation" and "foundations" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foundational vs foundations". 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 #499,179 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.