fortress
/ˈfoɹ.tɹɪs/
"fortress" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“fortress” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #10,051 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #10,051
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A fortified place; a large and permanent fortification, sometimes including a town; for example a fort, a castle; a stronghold; a place of defense or security.
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 | fortress |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈfoɹ.tɹɪs/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #10,051 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “fortress” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for fortress is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈfoɹ.tɹɪs/. Corpus data places it at rank #10,051 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for fortress, with forms such as "ffortress", "forrtess", and "forrtress". 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 2 confusable-pair relationships, "Forrest", "forties", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Early 14 c., from Old French forteresce, forteresse, forterece (“strong place, fortification”), variant of fortelesse, from Medieval Latin fortalitia, from Latin fortis (“strong”) (see fort) + -itia, added to adjectives to form nouns of quality or condition… The correct English form is fortress, spelled F-O-R-T-R-E-S-S.
Definition
- 1A fortified place; a large and permanent fortification, sometimes including a town; for example a fort, a castle; a stronghold; a place of defense or security.
- 2A position that, if obtained by the weaker side, will prevent penetration by the opposing side, generally achieving a draw.
Etymology
Early 14 c., from Old French forteresce, forteresse, forterece (“strong place, fortification”), variant of fortelesse, from Medieval Latin fortalitia, from Latin fortis (“strong”) (see fort) + -itia, added to adjectives to form nouns of quality or condition. French -ess, from Latin -itia is also in words such as duress, prowess, largesse and richesse. For change of medial -l- to -r- in Old French, compare orne (“elm”) from ulmus; chartre from cartula and chapitre from capitulum. First attested in the 12th century.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ffortress,forrtess,forrtress,forterss,fortres,fortrress,fortrses,forttress,fotrress,frotress,ofrtress
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of fortress - 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
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Using “fortress”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-O-R-T-R-E-S-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈfoɹ.tɹɪs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Forrest” - see the side-by-side comparison. fortress vs Forrest
- 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.