foremost
/ˈfɔː.məʊst/
"foremost" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“foremost” has 12 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #9,900. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #9,900
- frequency rank, English
- 2,507
- “F” headwords
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Positioned in front of (all) others in space, most forward.
Corpus desk
Index EN-foremost · foremost · English
foremost · rank #9,900 · 12 variants · 4 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #9,900
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 4 pairs
- VAR-MID 12 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,507
- PHOTO-FINISH folded
Nearest frequency peer: folded (-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 “foremost”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- Flynn
Flynn
90,104 corpus weight
- foam
foam
90,103 corpus weight
- folded
folded
90,102 corpus weight
- foremost
foremost
90,101 corpus weight
- forge
forge
90,100 corpus weight
- greenhouse
greenhouse
90,099 corpus weight
What this shows “foremost” 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 | foremost |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈfɔː.məʊst/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #9,900 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “foremost”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 12 spelling variants around foremost (IPA /ˈfɔː.məʊst/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #9,900 among 2,507 “F” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for foremost, with forms such as "fforemost", "foermost", and "foremmost". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "forest", "Fremont", "Formosa", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Old English formest, fyrmest (“earliest, first, most prominent”), from Proto-Germanic *frumistaz, from the locative stem *fur-, *fr- + the superlative suffix *-umistaz, stem ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pr-. The suffix *-umistaz was a compound … The correct English form is foremost, spelled F-O-R-E-M-O-S-T.
Definition
- 1Positioned in front of (all) others in space, most forward.
- 2Coming before (all) others in time.
- 3Of the highest rank or position; of the greatest importance; of the highest priority.
- 4Closest to the bow.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how foremost appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
She prankes not by hir mistresse side, she preases not to bée / The foremost of the companie, as when she erst was frée.
As I plunged into the reeds, my foremost pursuers emerged from the gap.
Etymology
From Old English formest, fyrmest (“earliest, first, most prominent”), from Proto-Germanic *frumistaz, from the locative stem *fur-, *fr- + the superlative suffix *-umistaz, stem ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pr-. The suffix *-umistaz was a compound suffix, created from the rarer comparative suffix *-umô (as in Old English fruma) + the regular superlative suffix *-istaz (English -est); *-umô in turn is from Proto-Indo-European *-mHo-. Cognate with Old Frisian formest, Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌿𐌼𐌹𐍃𐍄𐍃 (frumists). See for, first and Old English fruma for more. Partially cognate to primus, from Proto-Indo-European *pr- + Latin superlative suffix -imus, from Proto-Indo-European *-mHo-. A comparative former was back-formed analogically, leaving the m from *-umô in place. Later the Old English suffix complex -(u)m-est was conflated with the word most through folk etymology, so that the word is now interpreted as fore + -most.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- fforemost
- foermost
- foremmost
- foremosst
- foremostt
- foremots
- foremsot
- foreomst
- formeost
- forremost
- froemost
- ofremost
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of foremost - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "foremost", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (12 here; floor ≥5).