foyervsfryerConfusable pair

Which to use

“foyer” and “fryer” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#25,764
“foyer” frequency rank
#29,287
“fryer” frequency rank
55051
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature foyer fryer
Definition A lobby, corridor, or waiting room, used in a hotel, theater, etc. A machine or container for frying food.

Letter map: foyer vs fryer

Shared letters muted; letters that set foyer and fryer apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. foyer (CVVVC) and fryer (CCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
foyer
5 ch
fryer

Corpus notes: foyer and fryer

foyer and fryer are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - o in “foyer” becomes r in “fryer”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55051, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

foyer is recorded at frequency rank #25,764, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɔɪ.eɪ/. fryer is at rank #29,287, tagged as anoun.

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 55051, this pair ranks #136,503 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of foyer vs fryer

Shared letters: efry. Private to "foyer": o. Private to "fryer": -.

"foyer" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC  ·  "fryer" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • foyer ← ffoyer · foeyr · foyerr · foyre · foyyer · fyoer · ofyer
  • fryer ← ffryer · freyr · frryer · fryerr · fryre · fryyer · fyrer · rfyer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "foyer" for "fryer" ever safe?
No. They differ by a single letter - o in “foyer” becomes r in “fryer”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary English text, does "foyer" or "fryer" show up more?
"foyer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,764 in our English list, against #29,287 for "fryer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "foyer" and "fryer". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "foyer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fryer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #136,503 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "foyer" and "fryer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fader vs fryer". 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 #136,503 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list