font
/fɒnt/
"font" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“font” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #9,611 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #9,611
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A receptacle in a church for holy water, especially one used in baptism.
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 | font |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /fɒnt/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #9,611 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “font” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for font is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /fɒnt/. Corpus data places it at rank #9,611 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for font, with forms such as "ffont", "fnot", and "fonnt". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "for", "fun", "fox", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Old English font, an early borrowing from Latin fōns, fontis (“fountain”). The correct English form is font, spelled F-O-N-T.
Definition
- 1A receptacle in a church for holy water, especially one used in baptism.
- 2A receptacle for lamp oil in a lamp.
Etymology
From Old English font, an early borrowing from Latin fōns, fontis (“fountain”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ffont,fnot,fonnt,fontt,fotn,ofnt
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of font - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 “font”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-O-N-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /fɒnt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “for” - see the side-by-side comparison. font vs for
- 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.