finedvsfondTell them apart

Quick tell: fined is a verb, fond is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“fined” is a verb and “fond” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,211
“fined” frequency rank
#8,424
“fond” frequency rank
19635
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fined fond
Definition simple past and past participle of fine Having a liking or affection (for).

Where the eye mixes fined and fond

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
fined
4 ch
fond

Visual trap between fined and fond

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fined is /faɪnd/ while fond is /fɒnd/. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19635, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fined is recorded at frequency rank #11,211, classified as averb, pronounced /faɪnd/. fond is at rank #8,424, tagged as anadj, pronounced /fɒnd/.

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 19635, this pair ranks #436,786 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of fined vs fond

Shared letters: dfn. Private to "fined": ei. Private to "fond": o.

"fined" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "fond" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • finedffined · finde · finedd · finned · fnied · ifned
  • fondffond · fnod · fodn · fondd · fonnd · ofnd

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fined" and "fond" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "fined" is a verb and "fond" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "fined" or "fond"?
"fond" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,424 in our English list, against #11,211 for "fined". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "fined" and "fond" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fined" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fond" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #436,786 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fined" and "fond" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "FOMO vs fond". 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 #436,786 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list