fontvsfontesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#281
“font” frequency rank
#46,178
“fontes” frequency rank
46459
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature font fontes
Definition ou Source, fontaine. Fourreau de cuir pour les pistolets.

Where the eye mixes font and fontes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
font
6 ch
fontes

Look-alike desk: font vs fontes

A purely visual mix-up. font (\fɔ̃\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “font” sits inside “fontes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46459, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

font is recorded at frequency rank #281, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɔ̃\. 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 46459, this pair ranks #194,773 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of font vs fontes

Shared letters: fnot. Private to "font": -. Private to "fontes": es.

"font" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "fontes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fontffont · fnot · fonnt · fontt · fotn · ofnt
  • fontesffontes · fnotes · fonets · fonntes · fontess · fontse · fonttes · fotnes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "font" and "fontes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\fɔ̃\ versus \fɔ̃t\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "font" vs "fontes" - which ranks higher?
"font" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #281 in our French list, against #46,178 for "fontes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "font" 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 #194,773 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "font" 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 #194,773 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