Which to use
“faux” is an adjective and “fout” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #920
- “faux” frequency rank
- #3,403
- “fout” frequency rank
- 4323
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | faux | fout |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui n’est pas conforme, ou qui ne se conforme pas à la réalité. Quand il s’agit des idées et des sentiments, et de leur expression, il signifie que ces idées, ces sentiments ou leur expression sont contraires à la réalité par erreur ou par imposture. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de foutre. |
Letter map: faux vs fout
Shared letters muted; letters that set faux and fout apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Part-of-speech tell for faux / fout
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: faux is anadjective and foutaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4323, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
faux is recorded at frequency rank #920, classified as anadj, pronounced \fo\. fout is at rank #3,403, tagged as averb.
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 4323, this pair ranks #431,889 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of faux vs fout
Shared letters: fu. Private to "faux": ax. Private to "fout": ot.
"faux" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "fout" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "faux" for "fout" ever safe?
Which is more common, "faux" or "fout"?
What to do next
Pair "faux" vs "fout" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "faux" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fout" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #431,889 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "faux" and "fout" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fouets vs fout". 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 #431,889 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.