foray
/ˈfɒɹ.eɪ/
"foray" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“foray” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #27,464. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #27,464
- frequency rank, English
- 2,507
- “F” headwords
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A sudden or irregular incursion in border warfare; hence, any irregular incursion for war or spoils; a raid.
Corpus desk
Index EN-foray · foray · English
foray · rank #27,464 · 7 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #27,464
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 7 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,507
- PHOTO-FINISH flavoured
Nearest frequency peer: flavoured (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “foray”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- fisk
fisk
72,540 corpus weight
- fixer
fixer
72,539 corpus weight
- flavoured
flavoured
72,538 corpus weight
- foray
foray
72,537 corpus weight
- forfeiture
forfeiture
72,536 corpus weight
- forgave
forgave
72,535 corpus weight
What this shows “foray” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | foray |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈfɒɹ.eɪ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #27,464 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “foray”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 7 spelling variants around foray (IPA /ˈfɒɹ.eɪ/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #27,464 among 2,507 “F” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for foray, with forms such as "fforay", "foary", and "forayy". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "fry", "fra", "foy", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English forrayen (“to pillage”), a back-formation of forrayour, forreour, forrier (“raider, pillager”), from Old French forrier, fourrier, a derivative of fuerre (“provender, fodder, straw”), from Frankish *fōdar (“fodder, sheath”), from Proto-G… The correct English form is foray, spelled F-O-R-A-Y.
Definition
- 1A sudden or irregular incursion in border warfare; hence, any irregular incursion for war or spoils; a raid.
- 2A brief excursion or attempt, especially outside one's accustomed sphere.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how foray appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Bastian Schweinsteiger and Muller were among many who should have added the third, and City were limited to rare forays with the excellent Boateng pinching the ball off Aguero and Aleksandar Kolarov shooting wide in stoppage time.
Etymology
From Middle English forrayen (“to pillage”), a back-formation of forrayour, forreour, forrier (“raider, pillager”), from Old French forrier, fourrier, a derivative of fuerre (“provender, fodder, straw”), from Frankish *fōdar (“fodder, sheath”), from Proto-Germanic *fōdrą (“fodder, feed, sheath”), from Proto-Indo-European *patrom (“fodder”), *pat- (“to feed”), *pāy- (“to guard, graze, feed”). Cognate with Old High German fuotar (German Futter (“fodder, feed”)), Old English fōdor, fōþer (“food, fodder, covering, case, basket”), Dutch voeder (“forage, food, feed”), Danish foder (“fodder, feed”), Icelandic fóður (“fodder, sheath”). More at fodder, food, forage.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- fforay
- foary
- forayy
- forray
- forya
- froay
- ofray
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of foray - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "foray", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).