Which to use
“font” and “fort” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,611
- “font” frequency rank
- #3,302
- “fort” frequency rank
- 12913
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | font | fort |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A receptacle in a church for holy water, especially one used in baptism. | A fortified defensive structure stationed with troops. |
Where the eye mixes font and fort
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: font vs fort
A purely visual mix-up. font (/fɒnt/) and fort (/fɔɹt/) 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 a single letter - n in “font” becomes r in “fort”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12913, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
font is recorded at frequency rank #9,611, classified as anoun, pronounced /fɒnt/. fort is at rank #3,302, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fɔɹt/.
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 12913, this pair ranks #478,816 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of font vs fort
Shared letters: fot. Private to "font": n. Private to "fort": r.
"font" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "fort" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "font" and "fort" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "font" vs "fort" - which ranks higher?
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 "font" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fort" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #478,816 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "font" and "fort" 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 #478,816 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.