fœtus

\fe.tys\

/\fe.tys\/ noun

The verdict

“fœtus” has 7 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #19,296. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#19,296
frequency rank, French
3,276
“F” headwords
7
tracked misspellings
10
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Organisme en voie de développement, chez les animaux vivipares. Il a dépassé le stade d’embryon mais n’est pas encore né.

Corpus desk

Index FR-f-tus · fœtus · French

fœtus · rank #19,296 · 7 variants · 10 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #19,296
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 10 pairs
  • VAR-MID 7 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,276
  • PHOTO-FINISH furieuse

Nearest frequency peer: furieuse (-1 rank slots)

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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « fœtus »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « fœtus » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

fœtus vs fus
60% similar
fœtus vs fous
60% similar
fœtus vs fûts
60% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for fœtus
PropertyValue
Headwordfœtus
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\fe.tys\
Letters5
Frequency rank#19,296
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs10
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « fœtus »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).fœtusse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « furieuse » (#19,295), « Gainsbourg » (#19,297), « fument » (#19,294). Parmi 3,276 lemmes en « F », « fœtus » est au #19,296. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 7 spelling variants around fœtus (IPA \fe.tys\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #19,296 among 3,276 “F” headwords. Dominant gloss: "Organisme en voie de développement, chez les animaux vivipares. Il a dépassé le stade d’embryon mais n’est pas encore né.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for fœtus, with forms such as "ffœtus", "ftœus", and "fœtsu". 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 10 confusable-pair relationships, "fus", "fous", "fûts", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is fœtus, spelled F-Œ-T-U-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Organisme en voie de développement, chez les animaux vivipares. Il a dépassé le stade d’embryon mais n’est pas encore né.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how fœtus appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. La face interne de l'amnios est libre, lisse, semblable à la face interne des séreuses ; c'est elle qui sécrète probablement les eaux de l’amnios, qui remplissent la poche que forme cette membrane et dans lesquelles nage le fœtus.
  2. Ces principes posés, on peut sans s’éloigner de la vérité, considérer la formation du fœtus comme le résultat de deux forces émanées de chaque générateur.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ffœtus
  • ftœus
  • fœtsu
  • fœttus
  • fœtuss
  • fœuts
  • œftus

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of fœtus - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

ffœtus1ftœus2fœtsu2fœttus1fœtuss1fœuts2œftus2
Edit distance from "fœtus"

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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "fœtus"?
"fœtus" is spelled F-Œ-T-U-S. The IPA pronunciation is \fe.tys\.
What does "fœtus" mean?
As a noun, "fœtus" means: Organisme en voie de développement, chez les animaux vivipares. Il a dépassé le stade d’embryon mais n’est pas encore né.
What words are commonly confused with "fœtus"?
"fœtus" is commonly confused with "fus", "fous", "fûts". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "fœtus"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "fœtus" is \fe.tys\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "fœtus" come from?
"fœtus" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "fœtus", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list