Plural of “fox”

The plural of fox is foxes.

Why

"Fox" is one of the oldest, most thoroughly native English words on this list, tracing directly to Old English "fox," itself from a Proto-Germanic root shared across the Germanic language family, with no borrowing from Latin or French involved anywhere in its history. Despite being native rather than borrowed, its plural follows the same purely phonological sibilant rule as words borrowed centuries later from French or Latin: any noun ending in the -x sound needs -es, not bare -s, because the two consonant sounds can't combine cleanly in speech.

This makes "fox" a useful reminder that the -es sibilant rule has nothing to do with a word's origin or age — it's purely about the sound at the end of the word, which is why "fox," inherited from the earliest layers of English, and "hoax" or "duplex," borrowed or coined centuries later, all pluralize identically despite having nothing else in common historically.

Usage note

"Foxes" is used consistently across all the word's senses — the animal itself, and the figurative sense of a cunning or attractive person ("she's a fox," "they're both foxes") — without any variation in plural form between literal and figurative use.

The verb "to fox" (meaning to trick or deceive, as in "the puzzle foxed even the experts") picks up the identical spelling pattern in its third-person singular form, "foxes," a small reminder that this is a spelling rule about sound, not a rule specific to nouns. Foxes appear across an unusually wide range of folklore traditions worldwide — as tricksters in European fables, as shapeshifting spirits in Japanese kitsune legends, and as clever survivors in countless children's stories — a cross-cultural reputation for cunning that has nothing to do with the word's grammar but everything to do with why "foxes" shows up so often in figurative writing about cleverness or deception.

Common real mistakes

A rare but real error is writing "foxs," dropping the necessary vowel before the plural ending — like every other word on this list ending in -x, "fox" always needs the extra -es syllable, with no exceptions regardless of which sense of "fox" is meant.

The wider pattern

"Fox" sits alongside "hoax" and "tax" as -x nouns whose plural has stayed the plain sibilant -es form throughout their entire recorded history, with no Latin or French alternative ever seriously proposed — unlike some of the more scholarly -x words on this list, such as "vortex" or "apex," this word has only ever had one accepted plural. Urban fox populations have grown substantially in cities across the UK and parts of Europe over the last several decades, adapting their diet and denning behavior to city life in ways that have made them a genuinely active subject of urban ecology research, distinct from their traditional rural and folkloric reputation.

Examples

• Several foxes have been spotted near the edge of the woods this month.
• The farmer built a stronger fence to keep foxes away from the chickens.
• Two foxes trotted across the field just after sunset.
• Wildlife cameras captured foxes raising their kits behind the old barn.
• The city has seen more urban foxes as suburban development expands.
• Folk tales across many cultures cast foxes as clever tricksters.
• Researchers tracked the foxes' movements using GPS collars for a full year.
• The children's book features a family of foxes living beneath an oak tree.
• Hunters in the region historically pursued foxes on horseback.
• Both foxes disappeared into the underbrush before anyone could get a photo.
• Kitsune, or fox spirits, appear throughout Japanese folklore as shapeshifters.
• The vineyard uses trained dogs to keep foxes away from the grapes.
• Both foxes had grown noticeably bolder around the campsite by week's end.
• The nature reserve reported a healthy population of foxes this season.
• Urban foxes have adapted remarkably well to city life in recent decades.
• The farmer set up motion-sensor lights to deter foxes at night.
• Two young foxes played near the hedge until their mother called them back.
• Ecologists study how foxes and coyotes compete for the same territory.