Which to use
“foins” and “fonts” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,534
- “foins” frequency rank
- #39,304
- “fonts” frequency rank
- 87838
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | foins | fonts |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de foin. | Pluriel de font. |
Where the eye mixes foins and fonts
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. foins (CVVCC) and fonts (CVCCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between foins and fonts
A purely visual mix-up. foins (\fwɛ̃\) and fonts (\fɔ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 87838, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
foins is recorded at frequency rank #48,534, classified as anoun, pronounced \fwɛ̃\. fonts is at rank #39,304, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɔ̃\.
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 87838, this pair ranks #7,739 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of foins vs fonts
Shared letters: fnos. Private to "foins": i. Private to "fonts": t.
"foins" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "fonts" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "foins" and "fonts" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "foins" or "fonts"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "foins" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fonts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #7,739 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "foins" and "fonts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foies vs foins". 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 #7,739 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.