Which to use
“font” and “foo” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #281
- “font” frequency rank
- #43,447
- “foo” frequency rank
- 43728
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | font | foo |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | ou Source, fontaine. | Variable métasyntaxique en programmation informatique. |
Where the eye mixes font and foo
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses font with foo
A purely visual mix-up. font (\fɔ̃\) and foo (\fu\) 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 43728, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
font is recorded at frequency rank #281, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɔ̃\. foo is at rank #43,447, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fu\.
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 43728, this pair ranks #215,880 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of font vs foo
Shared letters: fo. Private to "font": nt. Private to "foo": -.
"font" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "foo" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- font ← ffont · fnot · fonnt · fontt · fotn · ofnt
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "font" for "foo" ever safe?
Frequency check: "font" vs "foo" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "font" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "foo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #215,880 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "font" and "foo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs foo". 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 #215,880 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.