fonsvsfoxTell them apart

Which to use

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

#43,445
“fons” frequency rank
#7,832
“fox” frequency rank
51277
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fons fox
Definition Fonds (patrimoine). Race de chien, abréviation de fox-terrier.

Letter map: fons vs fox

Shared letters muted; letters that set fons and fox apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
fons
3 ch
fox

Pair insight - fons / fox

fons and fox 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51277, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fons is recorded at frequency rank #43,445, classified as anoun. fox is at rank #7,832, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɔks\.

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 51277, this pair ranks #156,250 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fons vs fox

Shared letters: fo. Private to "fons": ns. Private to "fox": x.

"fons" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "fox" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fonsffons · fnos · fonns · fonss · fosn · ofns

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fons" and "fox" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "fons" or "fox"?
"fox" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,832 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.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "fons" and "fox".

  • Full dictionary entry for "fons" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fox" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #156,250 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fons" and "fox" 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 #156,250 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