Which to use
“fond” is an adjective and “font” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,424
- “fond” frequency rank
- #9,611
- “font” frequency rank
- 18035
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fond | font |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having a liking or affection (for). | A receptacle in a church for holy water, especially one used in baptism. |
Where the eye mixes fond and font
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses fond with font
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: fond is /fɒnd/ while font is /fɒnt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “fond” becomes t in “font”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18035, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fond is recorded at frequency rank #8,424, classified as anadj, pronounced /fɒnd/. 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 18035, this pair ranks #447,539 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of fond vs font
Shared letters: fno. Private to "fond": d. Private to "font": t.
"fond" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "font" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fond" and "font" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "fond" or "font" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "fond" and "font" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fond" 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 #447,539 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fond" 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 #447,539 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.