abstenir
\ap.stə.niʁ\
The verdict
“abstenir” has 12 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #11,896. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #11,896
- frequency rank, French
- 6,727
- “A” headwords
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - S’empêcher de faire quelque chose ; se priver de l’usage de quelque chose.
Corpus desk
Index FR-abstenir · abstenir · French
abstenir · rank #11,896 · 12 variants · 2 confusables
- FREQ-MID #11,896
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-LOW 2 pairs
- VAR-MID 12 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,727
- PHOTO-FINISH Abidjan
Nearest frequency peer: Abidjan (-1 rank slots)
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « abstenir »
Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin
- émancipation
émancipation
88,108 corpus weight
- étrangement
étrangement
88,107 corpus weight
- Abidjan
Abidjan
88,106 corpus weight
- abstenir
abstenir
88,105 corpus weight
- abuse
abuse
88,104 corpus weight
- acceptez
acceptez
88,103 corpus weight
What this shows « abstenir » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | abstenir |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \ap.stə.niʁ\ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #11,896 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « abstenir »
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 12 spelling variants around abstenir (IPA \ap.stə.niʁ\), averb. Corpus frequency is #11,896 among 6,727 “A” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for abstenir, with forms such as "abbstenir", "absetnir", and "absstenir". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "abstenu", "abstenus", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is abstenir, spelled A-B-S-T-E-N-I-R.
Definition
- 1S’empêcher de faire quelque chose ; se priver de l’usage de quelque chose.
- 2Ne pas voter lors d’un scrutin.
- 3Décider de ne pas faire ce qu’on fait normalement.
- 4Empêcher, dissuader.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how abstenir appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Les podagres doivent-ils s’abstenir entièrement de vin ? Il y a un axiome populaire qui dit : buvez ou ne buvez pas de vin, et vous n'en aurez pas moins la goutte.
Nous nous étions abstenus de faire du feu dans la crainte que la fumée ne révélât notre présence, mais voyant que nous étions découverts, nous fîmes la cuisine.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- abbstenir
- absetnir
- absstenir
- absteinr
- abstenirr
- abstennir
- abstenri
- abstneir
- absttenir
- abtsenir
- asbtenir
- bastenir
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of abstenir - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "abstenir"?
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "abstenir", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (12 here; floor ≥5).