“Fetuses” or “Foetuses”—What's the difference?

Usage by country

Where each spelling is used

Of the 12 countries below, 8 prefer “fetuses” and 0 prefer “foetuses”. Usage levels are out of 100; the more common spelling in each country is in bold.

Usage level out of 100 (if available).
Country	fetuses	foetuses	Preference
United States	99	1	“fetuses”
United Kingdom	68	32	“fetuses”
India	76	24	“fetuses”
Philippines	100	0	“fetuses”
Canada	97	3	“fetuses”
Australia	77	23	“fetuses”
Liberia	0	0	Not enough data
Ireland	71	29	“fetuses”
New Zealand	76	24	“fetuses”
Jamaica	0	0	Not enough data
Trinidad & Tobago	0	0	Not enough data
Guyana	0	0	Not enough data

Usage

Examples in context

Real sentences for each spelling. Hover an example to copy it.

“fetuses”

…serious threats to adolescents and fetuses."
…in order to refer to fetuses and infants with BRA.
The hypothesis that human fetuses are capable of perceiving pain…
The objects looked like fetuses from last week's The X-Files".
…behavior, and prostate gland in fetuses, infants, and young children, and…
…factor for additional complications, most fetuses with the condition will not…
…to anesthetise the fetus, all fetuses would be born sleepy after…
…versus nature); human embryos and fetuses are conditioned through a carefully…
…but a female carrying four fetuses was caught in March and…
In fetuses and infants, arginine is also…

“foetuses”

…birth defect can result in foetuses (both human and animal) which…
…homosexuality" using research conducted on foetuses with congenital adrenal hyperplasia and…
…have little REM sleep as foetuses and after birth, while animals…
During REM sleep, foetuses and newborns are programmed with…
…of sex determination techniques for foetuses due to this, but enforcement…
…on scientific progress which makes foetuses viable earlier".
…obtained from the two mummified foetuses, it was enough to confirm…
…does not extend to unborn foetuses, which do not have legal…
…or serve as threats to foetuses or infants.
…to cause prenatal infection of foetuses.

Examples are Wikipedia snippets under the CC ShareAlike 3.0 license.

Too much to remember?

Looking for a tool that handles this for you wherever you write?

Install Sapling Try the grammar checker