Which to use
“Fos” is a name and “fosse” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #33,268
- “Fos” frequency rank
- #7,964
- “fosse” frequency rank
- 41232
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Fos | fosse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Commune française, située dans le département de la Haute-Garonne. | Cavité dans le sol, le plus souvent artificielle. |
Letter map: Fos vs fosse
Shared letters muted; letters that set Fos and fosse apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. Fos runs 3 letters (CVC) against fosse's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Grammar separator: Fos vs fosse
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Fos is aname and fosseanoun. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “Fos” sits inside “fosse”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41232, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Fos is recorded at frequency rank #33,268, classified as aname. 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 41232, this pair ranks #234,611 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Fos vs fosse
Shared letters: fos. Private to "Fos": -. Private to "fosse": e.
"Fos" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "fosse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- fosse ← ffosse · fose · foses · fsose · ofsse
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Fos" for "fosse" ever safe?
Which is more common, "Fos" or "fosse"?
Useful next steps
You've compared "Fos" and "fosse". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "Fos" 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 #234,611 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Fos" and "fosse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs Fos". 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 #234,611 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.