Which to use
“fesses” and “fosses” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,489
- “fesses” frequency rank
- #16,882
- “fosses” frequency rank
- 21371
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fesses | fosses |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de fesse. | Pluriel de fosse. |
Where the eye mixes fesses and fosses
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. fesses and fosses follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between fesses and fosses
A purely visual mix-up. fesses (\fɛs\) and fosses (\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 “fesses” becomes o in “fosses”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21371, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fesses is recorded at frequency rank #4,489, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɛs\. fosses is at rank #16,882, 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 21371, this pair ranks #363,525 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of fesses vs fosses
Shared letters: efs. Private to "fesses": -. Private to "fosses": o.
"fesses" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "fosses" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fesses" and "fosses" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "fesses" or "fosses" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "fesses" and "fosses" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fesses" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fosses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #363,525 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fesses" and "fosses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foies vs fosses". 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 #363,525 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.