Which to use
“flottes” and “fontes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #24,977
- “flottes” frequency rank
- #46,178
- “fontes” frequency rank
- 71155
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | flottes | fontes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de flotte. | Fourreau de cuir pour les pistolets. |
Where the eye mixes flottes and fontes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. flottes runs 7 letters (CCVCCVC) against fontes's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses flottes with fontes
A purely visual mix-up. flottes (\flɔt\) and fontes (\fɔ̃t\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71155, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
flottes is recorded at frequency rank #24,977, classified as anoun, pronounced \flɔt\. fontes is at rank #46,178, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɔ̃t\.
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 71155, this pair ranks #48,604 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of flottes vs fontes
Shared letters: efost. Private to "flottes": l. Private to "fontes": n.
"flottes" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC · "fontes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "flottes" and "fontes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "flottes" or "fontes" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "flottes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fontes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #48,604 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "flottes" and "fontes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foies vs fontes". 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 #48,604 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.