Which to use
“fœtus” is a noun and “foutus” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #19,296
- “fœtus” frequency rank
- #17,712
- “foutus” frequency rank
- 37008
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fœtus | foutus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Organisme en voie de développement, chez les animaux vivipares. Il a dépassé le stade d’embryon mais n’est pas encore né. | Masculin pluriel de foutu. |
Where the eye mixes fœtus and foutus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. fœtus runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against foutus's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses fœtus with foutus
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fœtus is \fe.tys\ while foutus is \fu.ty\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37008, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fœtus is recorded at frequency rank #19,296, classified as anoun, pronounced \fe.tys\. foutus is at rank #17,712, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fu.ty\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 37008, this pair ranks #265,528 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fœtus vs foutus
Shared letters: fstu. Private to "fœtus": œ. Private to "foutus": o.
"fœtus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "foutus" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- foutus ← ffoutus · fotuus · foutsu · fouttus · foutuss · fouuts · fuotus · ofutus
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fœtus" and "foutus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "fœtus" or "foutus" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "fœtus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "foutus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #265,528 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fœtus" and "foutus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fouets vs foutus". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #265,528 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.