# Formosa

> English word · Proper noun · IPA /fɔːˈməʊ.sə/ · frequency rank #38,846

## Definitions
1. Synonym of Taiwan: an island of East Asia.
2. Synonym of Taiwan: an administrative division including Formosa and nearby islands.
3. Synonym of Taiwan: an administrative division including Formosa and nearby islands.
4. Synonym of Taiwan: an administrative division including Formosa and nearby islands.
5. Synonym of Taiwan: an administrative division including Formosa and nearby islands.
6. Synonym of Taiwan: an administrative division including Formosa and nearby islands.
7. A city in Goiás, Brazil.
8. An island of the Bissagos Islands, Guinea-Bissau.

## Etymology
From Portuguese Formosa, as in Ilha Formosa (literally “Beautiful Island”) and Vila Formosa da Imperatriz (literally “Beautiful Town of the Empress”), from formosa (“beautiful, shapely”), from Latin fōrmōsus (“beautiful, well-formed”), from fōrma (“shape”) + -ōsus (“-ful”), literally “shapeful”.
The Brazilian city was named in honor of Empress Teresa Cristina, in the 1840s.

## Easily confused with
- **forms** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/formosa-vs-forms)
- **formula** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/formosa-vs-formula)
- **foremost** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/foremost-vs-formosa)

## Common misspellings (10)
`fformosa`, `fomrosa`, `formmosa`, `formoas`, `formossa`, `formsoa`, `foromsa`, `forrmosa`, `fromosa`, `ofrmosa`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/formosa