fontaine

/\fɔ̃.tɛn\/ noun

Letters

8 characters

Frequency Rank

#4,671

in French word usage

Misspellings

11

tracked variants

Confusables

4

similar word pairs

fontaine is aFrenchnoun. It means: Eau vive qui sort de terre. Pronounced \fɔ̃.tɛn\. It ranks #4,671 in French word frequency. Often confused with foraine and fontana.

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)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of fontaine in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for fontaine is 8 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \fɔ̃.tɛn\. Corpus data places it at rank #4,671 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 11 documented wrong-spelling variants for fontaine, with forms such as "ffontaine", "fnotaine", and "fonatine". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "foraine", "fontana", "foutaise", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is fontaine, spelled F-O-N-T-A-I-N-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

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.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: ffontaine,fnotaine,fonatine,fonntaine,fontaien,fontainne,fontanie,fontiane,fonttaine,fotnaine,ofntaine

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for fontaine

Misspelling Variants of "fontaine"

ffontaine9fnotaine8fonatine8fonntaine9fontaien8fontainne9fontanie8fontiane8
Misspelling Variants of "fontaine"

Frequency rank: #4,671 in French

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. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter F in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.