Which to use
“fosse” is a noun and “fuse” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,964
- “fosse” frequency rank
- #46,778
- “fuse” frequency rank
- 54742
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fosse | fuse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Cavité dans le sol, le plus souvent artificielle. | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe fuser. |
Where the eye mixes fosse and fuse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. fosse runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against fuse's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses fosse with fuse
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fosse is \fos\ while fuse is \fyz\. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54742, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fosse is recorded at frequency rank #7,964, classified as anoun, pronounced \fos\. fuse is at rank #46,778, tagged as averb, pronounced \fyz\.
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 54742, this pair ranks #131,998 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fosse vs fuse
Shared letters: efs. Private to "fosse": o. Private to "fuse": u.
"fosse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "fuse" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fosse" and "fuse" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "fosse" vs "fuse" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "fosse" and "fuse" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fosse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fuse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #131,998 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fosse" and "fuse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs fuse". 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 #131,998 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.