foment
/fəʊˈmɛnt/
"foment" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“foment” is an uncommon English word, ranked #59,398 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #59,398
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To incite or cause troublesome acts; to encourage; to instigate.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | foment |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /fəʊˈmɛnt/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #59,398 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “foment” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for foment is 6 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /fəʊˈmɛnt/. Corpus data places it at rank #59,398 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for foment, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English fomenten, a borrowing from Old French fomenter, from Late Latin fōmentāre, from Latin fōmentum (“lotion”), from fovēre (“heat, cherish”). The correct English form is foment, spelled F-O-M-E-N-T.
Definition
- 1To incite or cause troublesome acts; to encourage; to instigate.
- 2To apply a poultice to; to bathe with a cloth or sponge.
Etymology
From Middle English fomenten, a borrowing from Old French fomenter, from Late Latin fōmentāre, from Latin fōmentum (“lotion”), from fovēre (“heat, cherish”).
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “foment”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-O-M-E-N-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /fəʊˈmɛnt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.