fonsvsfoodWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“fons” and “food” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#43,445
“fons” frequency rank
#8,110
“food” frequency rank
51555
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fons food
Definition Fonds (patrimoine). Nourriture.

Letter map: fons vs food

Shared letters muted; letters that set fons and food apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. fons (CVCC) and food (CVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
fons
4 ch
food

Spelling & dictionary notes on fons vs food

fons and food are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51555, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fons is recorded at frequency rank #43,445, classified as anoun. food is at rank #8,110, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fuːd\.

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 51555, this pair ranks #154,133 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fons vs food

Shared letters: fo. Private to "fons": ns. Private to "food": d.

"fons" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "food" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fons ← ffons · fnos · fonns · fonss · fosn · ofns
  • food ← ffood · fod · fodo · foodd · ofod

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fons" and "food" be used interchangeably?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "fons" vs "food" - which ranks higher?
"food" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,110 in our French list, against #43,445 for "fons". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "fons" vs "food" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fons" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "food" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #154,133 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fons" and "food" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foins vs fons". 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 #154,133 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list