foreign

for·eign/ˈfɔɹɪn/adjective, noun

foreign is spelled F-O-R-E-I-G-N, 2 syllables: for·eign. The wrong spelling people search most is foriegn: about 360 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 12 of all searches for the word. Foreign is an adjective meaning “Located outside a country or place, especially one's own”.

How many letters and syllables are in foreign?

Letters	7: F-O-R-E-I-G-N
Syllables	2: for·eign
In writing	120 times per million words; the 873rd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched	3; the most searched, foriegn, about 360 Bing searches a month (all of them)
Rhymes with	florin ciclosporin

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How do you spell foreign?

Foreign is spelled F-O-R-E-I-G-N. 3 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 10 of the searches for foreign in either form.

foreignthe right spelling4,130 searches a month

foriegne and i swapped360 searches a month

foregini and g swapped180 searches a month

foreingg and n swapped70 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is foreign?

Foreign appears 120 times per million words in written English, the 873rd most frequent word form in the list.

foreign0.0010.010.11101001,00010,000

rarerper million words of written Englishmore common

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce foreign?

UK /ˈfɒɹɪn/
UK /ˈfɒɹən/
US /ˈfɔɹɪn/

Foreign has 2 syllables, split for·eign in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-foreign.ogg, En-us-foreign.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Byrhtnoð-foreign.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with foreign?

2 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as foreign from its last stressed vowel (/ɔɹɪn/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of foreign

more foreign comparative
most foreign superlative
foreigns plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does foreign mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

1
Located outside a country or place, especially one's own.
foreign markets; foreign soil
2
Originating from, characteristic of, belonging to, or being a citizen of a country or place other than the one under discussion.
foreign car; foreign word; foreign citizen; foreign trade
3
Relating to a different nation.
foreign policy; foreign navies
4
Not characteristic of or naturally taken in by an organism or system.
foreign body; foreign substance; foreign gene; foreign species
5
Alien; strange; uncharacteristic.
It was completely foreign to their way of thinking.
6
obsoleteHeld at a distance; excluded; exiled.
7
CanadaUSFrom a different legal jurisdiction (state, province), even if within the same country.
8
Belonging to a different organization, company etc.
My bank charges me $2.50 every time I use a foreign ATM.

noun

1
informalA foreigner: a person from another country.
2
obsoleteAn outsider: a person from another place or group.
3
obsoleteA non-guildmember.
4
obsoleteA foreign ship.
5
slangA foreign whip, a car produced abroad.
6
obsoleteAn outhouse; an outdoor toilet.
7
An area of a community that lies outside the legal town or parish limits.
8
obsoleteAn area of a monastery outside its legal limits or serving as an outer court.