What’s the difference between fowl and foul?

Fowl refers to birds. And that’s it. It’s all birds all the time with fowl. So think of the W in the word and think Wings. Easy peasy.

Foul is probably the word you meant to use 99.9 percent of the time, unless you draw chickens as a pastime and are trying to be funny. But odds are your life hasn’t sunk that low. Foul means offensive, illegal, detestable. When it comes to phrases like foul play, foul up, cry foul or foul-mouthed, you use this spelling.