fontevsfronteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“fonte” and “fronte” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#894
“fonte” frequency rank
#26,397
“fronte” frequency rank
27291
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fonte fronte
Definition lugar onde nasce água parte superior do rosto (desde a raiz dos cabelos até às sobrancelhas)

Where the eye mixes fonte and fronte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. fonte runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against fronte's 6 (CCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
fonte
6 ch
fronte

Visual trap between fonte and fronte

A purely visual mix-up. fonte (/ˈfõ.tɨ/) and fronte (/ˈfɾõ.tɨ/) 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 27291, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fonte is recorded at frequency rank #894, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfõ.tɨ/. fronte is at rank #26,397, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɾõ.tɨ/.

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 27291, this pair ranks #41,711 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fonte vs fronte

Shared letters: efnot. Private to "fonte": -. Private to "fronte": r.

"fonte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "fronte" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fonte ← ffonte · fnote · fonet · fonnte · fontte · fotne · ofnte
  • fronte ← ffronte · fornte · frnote · fronet · fronnte · frontte · frotne · frronte

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fonte" and "fronte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈfõ.tɨ/ versus /ˈfɾõ.tɨ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "fonte" vs "fronte" - which ranks higher?
"fonte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #894 in our Portuguese list, against #26,397 for "fronte". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "fonte" and "fronte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fonte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fronte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #41,711 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fonte" and "fronte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fronha vs fronte". 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 #41,711 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list