foi

\fwa\

/\fwa\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“foi” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #1,478) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#1,478
frequency rank, French
3,276
“F” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Croyance aux dogmes de la religion, en Dieu.

Corpus desk

Index FR-foi · foi · French

foi · rank #1,478 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #1,478
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,276
  • PHOTO-FINISH député

Nearest frequency peer: député (-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.

Frequency neighbourhood for “foi”

Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “foi” sits against the nearest ranked French headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.

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).

foi vs ft
33% similar
foi vs Fs
0% similar
foi vs FP
0% similar

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

Key facts for foi
PropertyValue
Headwordfoi
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\fwa\
Letters3
Frequency rank#1,478
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Où “foi” se place dans la fréquence du français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).foise place ici:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « député » (#1,477), « football » (#1,479), « danger » (#1,476). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for foi is neighbouring look-alikes ("ft", "Fs", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \fwa\. Frequency #1,478 among 3,276 “F” headwords. 8 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for foi, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ft", "Fs", "FP", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is foi, spelled F-O-I.

Definition

  1. 1
    Croyance aux dogmes de la religion, en Dieu.
  2. 2
    Objet de la foi ; dogmes qu’une religion propose à croire comme révélés de Dieu.
  3. 3
    Cette religion même.
  4. 4
    Fidélité, exactitude à tenir sa parole, à remplir ses promesses, ses engagements ; ou assurance donnée de garder sa parole, sa promesse.
  5. 5
    L’obligation que l’on contracte ; l’assurance que l’on donne de quelque chose par les traités, par les serments, etc.
  6. 6
    Croyance ; confiance.
  7. 7
    Témoignage ; assurance ; preuve.
  8. 8
    salutation ; symbole héraldique formé par une salutation par une poignée de main.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. […] je n’envie pas votre foi, qui est constamment dans votre bouche, mais jamais dans votre cœur ni dans vos actions.
  2. […] les institutions nouvelles étaient devenues intangibles et l’idéologie qui fut construite pour les expliquer devint comme une foi qui sembla longtemps avoir pour les Français la valeur que la révélation de Jésus a pour les catholiques.

This word in other languages

confidence(English)fe(Español)Glaube(Deutsch)crença(Português)

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 "foi"?
"foi" is spelled F-O-I. The IPA pronunciation is \fwa\.
What does "foi" mean?
As a noun, "foi" means: Croyance aux dogmes de la religion, en Dieu.
What words are commonly confused with "foi"?
"foi" is commonly confused with "ft", "Fs", "FP". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "foi"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "foi" is \fwa\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "foi" come from?
"foi" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "foi", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

bus#1,508mur#1,531nul#1,417tué#1,543

What to do next

You've looked up "foi". Here's where to go from here.

  • "foi" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "ft". View pair
  • Usage frequency rank #1,478 among French headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
  • Browse more French words in the "F" letter cohort. F–Z browse

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list