fence
/fɛns/
"fence" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“fence” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #5,037 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #5,037
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A thin artificial barrier that separates two pieces of land or forms a perimeter enclosing the lands of a house, building, etc.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | fence |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /fɛns/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #5,037 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “fence” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for fence is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /fɛns/. Corpus data places it at rank #5,037 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for fence, with forms such as "efnce", "fance", and "fecne". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "FNC", "fine", "feng", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English fence, fens, short for defence, defens (“the act of defending”), from Old French defens, defense (see defence). The sense "enclosure" arises in the mid 15th century. Also from the 15th century is use as a verb in the sense "to enclose wi… The correct English form is fence, spelled F-E-N-C-E.
Definition
- 1A thin artificial barrier that separates two pieces of land or forms a perimeter enclosing the lands of a house, building, etc.
- 2Someone who hides or buys and sells stolen goods, a criminal middleman for transactions of stolen goods.
- 3The place whence such a middleman operates.
- 4Skill in oral debate.
- 5The art or practice of fencing.
- 6A guard or guide on machinery.
- 7A barrier, for example an emotional barrier.
- 8A memory barrier.
- 9The boundary.
Etymology
From Middle English fence, fens, short for defence, defens (“the act of defending”), from Old French defens, defense (see defence). The sense "enclosure" arises in the mid 15th century. Also from the 15th century is use as a verb in the sense "to enclose with a fence". The generalized sense "to defend, screen, protect" arises ca. 1500. The sense "to fight with swords (rapiers)" is from the 1590s (Shakespeare). Displaced native Old English heġe (compare Modern English hedge).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: efnce,fance,fecne,fencce,fenec,fennce,ffence,fnece
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of fence - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “fence”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-E-N-C-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /fɛns/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “FNC” - see the side-by-side comparison. fence vs FNC
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.