Which to use
“fesse” and “fosse” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #21,625
- “fesse” frequency rank
- #7,964
- “fosse” frequency rank
- 29589
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fesse | fosse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Chacune des deux masses charnues situées à la partie postérieure du bassin, chez l’être humain et certains mammifères. | Cavité dans le sol, le plus souvent artificielle. |
Where the eye mixes fesse and fosse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. fesse and fosse follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses fesse with fosse
A purely visual mix-up. fesse (\fɛs\) and fosse (\fos\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - e in “fesse” becomes o in “fosse”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29589, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fesse is recorded at frequency rank #21,625, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɛs\. fosse is at rank #7,964, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fos\.
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 29589, this pair ranks #315,719 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fesse vs fosse
Shared letters: efs. Private to "fesse": -. Private to "fosse": o.
"fesse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "fosse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "fesse" for "fosse" ever safe?
Which is more common, "fesse" or "fosse"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "fesse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fosse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #315,719 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fesse" and "fosse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs fesse". 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 #315,719 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.