fontaine

\fɔ̃.tɛn\

/\fɔ̃.tɛn\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“fontaine” has 11 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #4,671. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#4,671
frequency rank, French
3,276
“F” headwords
11
tracked misspellings
4
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Eau vive qui sort de terre.

Corpus desk

Index FR-fontaine · fontaine · French

fontaine · rank #4,671 · 11 variants · 4 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #4,671
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 4 pairs
  • VAR-MID 11 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,276
  • PHOTO-FINISH fuir

Nearest frequency peer: fuir (+1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « fontaine »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « fontaine » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

fontaine vs foraine
75% similar
fontaine vs fontana
75% similar
fontaine vs foutaise
75% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for fontaine
PropertyValue
Headwordfontaine
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\fɔ̃.tɛn\
Letters8
Frequency rank#4,671
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs4
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « fontaine »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).fontainese place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « fuir » (#4,672), « failli » (#4,669), « fumée » (#4,673). Parmi 3,276 lemmes en « F », « fontaine » est au #4,671. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 11 spelling variants around fontaine (IPA \fɔ̃.tɛn\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #4,671 among 3,276 “F” headwords. Wiktionary lists 8 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for fontaine, with forms such as "ffontaine", "fnotaine", and "fonatine". 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 4 confusable-pair relationships, "foraine", "fontana", "foutaise", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is fontaine, spelled F-O-N-T-A-I-N-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Eau vive qui sort de terre.
  2. 2
    Corps d’architecture qui sert pour l’écoulement, pour le jeu des eaux d’une fontaine.
  3. 3
    Appareil distribuant une boisson.
  4. 4
    Récipient dans lequel on garde de l’eau, pour les usages domestiques.
  5. 5
    Machine d’où l’on fait jaillir un liquide par la pression et la force élastique de l’air.
  6. 6
    Figure faite avec un nombre pair d’objets qui consiste à lancer chacun à la même main.
  7. 7
    Tas de farine au centre duquel on fait un trou en vue d’y incorporer un liquide, un œuf, etc.
  8. 8
    Meuble représentant la construction du même nom dans les armoiries. Elle est généralement représentée selon la construction à laquelle elle fait référence (certains auteurs précisent alors dans le blasonnement qu’elle est du lieu). Elle est dite jaillissante quand les jets d’eau sont d'un autre émail.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how fontaine appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Là, au fond d’un chemin creux, à côté d’un bouquet de jeunes saules, je trouvai la fontaine dont l’existence a pu seule rendre Chausey habitable. La présence d’une source sur ce bloc de granit, à plusieurs lieues des côtes, est un fait très curieux et passablement difficile à expliquer.
  2. Une fontaine qui ne jaillissait, de mémoire d’homme, qu’à la fonte des neiges, avait coulé sans interruption depuis.

Synonyms

sourcevasque

This word in other languages

source(English)fuente(Español)Quelle(Deutsch)fonte(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ffontaine
  • fnotaine
  • fonatine
  • fonntaine
  • fontaien
  • fontainne
  • fontanie
  • fontiane
  • fonttaine
  • fotnaine
  • ofntaine

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of fontaine - 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.

ffontaine1fnotaine2fonatine2fonntaine1fontaien2fontainne1fontanie2fontiane2
Edit distance from "fontaine"

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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "fontaine"?
"fontaine" is spelled F-O-N-T-A-I-N-E. The IPA pronunciation is \fɔ̃.tɛn\.
What does "fontaine" mean?
As a noun, "fontaine" means: Eau vive qui sort de terre.
What words are commonly confused with "fontaine"?
"fontaine" is commonly confused with "foraine", "fontana", "foutaise". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "fontaine"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "fontaine" is \fɔ̃.tɛn\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "fontaine" come from?
"fontaine" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "fontaine", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

féminine#4,674hôpitaux#4,679descente#4,662instance#4,681

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).

location11 variantsprévoir11 variantsépargne11 variantsRaymond11 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list