Which to use
“flint” and “font” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,049
- “flint” frequency rank
- #9,611
- “font” frequency rank
- 19660
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | flint | font |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A hard, fine-grained quartz that fractures conchoidally and generates sparks when struck against a material such as steel, because tiny chips of the steel are heated to incandescence and burn in air. | A receptacle in a church for holy water, especially one used in baptism. |
Where the eye mixes flint and font
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses flint with font
A purely visual mix-up. flint (/flɪnt/) and font (/fɒnt/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19660, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
flint is recorded at frequency rank #10,049, classified as anoun, pronounced /flɪnt/. font is at rank #9,611, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fɒnt/.
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 19660, this pair ranks #436,619 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of flint vs font
Shared letters: fnt. Private to "flint": il. Private to "font": o.
"flint" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "font" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "flint" and "font" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "flint" or "font" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "flint" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "font" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #436,619 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "flint" and "font" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "FOMO vs font". 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 #436,619 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.