fontvsforteConfusable pair

Quick tell: font is a noun, forte is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“font” is a noun and “forte” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,970
“font” frequency rank
#42,455
“forte” frequency rank
60425
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature font forte
Definition Mutación aspirada del sustantivo masculino pont ('puente') Fuerte.

Where the eye mixes font and forte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
font
5 ch
forte

Why the eye confuses font with forte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: font is [ˈf̬ɔ̃nt] while forte is /ˈfɔɾ.te/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60425, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

font is recorded at frequency rank #17,970, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈf̬ɔ̃nt]. forte is at rank #42,455, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈfɔɾ.te/.

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 60425, this pair ranks #59,001 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of font vs forte

Shared letters: fot. Private to "font": n. Private to "forte": er.

"font" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "forte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fontffont · fnot · fonnt · fontt · fotn · ofnt
  • fortefforte · foret · forrte · fortte · fotre · frote · ofrte

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "font" and "forte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "font" is a noun and "forte" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "font" or "forte" show up more?
"font" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,970 in our Spanish list, against #42,455 for "forte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "font" and "forte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "font" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "forte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #59,001 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "font" and "forte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "forte vs fuste". 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 #59,001 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list