fou
"fou" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“fou” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #48,244 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #48,244
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Drunk.
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 | fou |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #48,244 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “fou” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for fou is 3 letters long, classified as an adjective. Corpus data places it at rank #48,244 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Drunk.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for fou, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "fu", "FS", "FP", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Scots fou. Compare full, a doublet. The correct English form is fou, spelled F-O-U.
Definition
- 1Drunk.
Etymology
Borrowed from Scots fou. Compare full, a doublet.
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 “fou”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-O-U - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “fu” - see the side-by-side comparison. fou vs fu
- 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.