Which to use
“folk” and “font” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,947
- “folk” frequency rank
- #9,611
- “font” frequency rank
- 14558
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | folk | font |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A people; a tribe or nation; the inhabitants of a region, especially the native inhabitants. | A receptacle in a church for holy water, especially one used in baptism. |
Where the eye mixes folk and font
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: folk vs font
A purely visual mix-up. folk (/fəʊk/) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14558, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
folk is recorded at frequency rank #4,947, classified as anoun, pronounced /fəʊk/. 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 14558, this pair ranks #469,294 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of folk vs font
Shared letters: fo. Private to "folk": kl. Private to "font": nt.
"folk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "font" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "folk" for "font" ever safe?
Frequency check: "folk" vs "font" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "folk" 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 #469,294 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "folk" 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 #469,294 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.