ford
/fɔːd/
"ford" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“ford” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,996 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #2,996
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A location where a stream is shallow and the bottom has good footing, making it possible to cross from one side to the other with no bridge, by walking, riding, or driving through the water; a cros...
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 | ford |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /fɔːd/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #2,996 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ford” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for ford is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /fɔːd/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,996 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 ford, with forms such as "fford", "fodr", and "fordd". 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, "fox", "fur", "fry", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *per- Proto-Indo-European *-tus Proto-Indo-European *pértus Proto-Germanic *furduz Proto-West Germanic *furdu Old English ford English ford Inherited from Middle English fōrd, from Old English ford, from Proto-West Germani… The correct English form is ford, spelled F-O-R-D.
Definition
- 1A location where a stream is shallow and the bottom has good footing, making it possible to cross from one side to the other with no bridge, by walking, riding, or driving through the water; a crossing.
- 2A stream; a current.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *per- Proto-Indo-European *-tus Proto-Indo-European *pértus Proto-Germanic *furduz Proto-West Germanic *furdu Old English ford English ford Inherited from Middle English fōrd, from Old English ford, from Proto-West Germanic *furdu, from Proto-Germanic *furduz, from Proto-Indo-European *pértus (“crossing”). Doublet of firth, fjord, and fjard, all via Old Norse; and port, distantly via Latin. Cognate with Low German Föörd, Dutch voord, German Furt, Norwegian and Danish fjord. See also forth and Persian پل (pol, “bridge”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: fford,fodr,fordd,forrd,frod,ofrd
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of ford - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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
How do you spell "ford"?
What does "ford" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "ford"?
How do you pronounce "ford"?
What is the origin of the word "ford"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “ford”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-O-R-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /fɔːd/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “fox” - see the side-by-side comparison. ford vs fox
- 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.