foremost
/ˈfɔː.məʊst/
"foremost" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“foremost” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #9,900 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #9,900
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Positioned in front of (all) others in space, most forward.
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) |
Where “foremost” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for foremost is 8 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈfɔː.məʊst/. Corpus data places it at rank #9,900 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
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.
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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Using “foremost”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-O-R-E-M-O-S-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈfɔː.məʊst/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “forest” - see the side-by-side comparison. foremost vs forest
- 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.