abuse

\a.byz\

/\a.byz\/ verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“abuse” has 6 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #11,897. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#11,897
frequency rank, French
6,727
“A” headwords
6
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe abuser.

Corpus desk

Index FR-abuse · abuse · French

abuse · rank #11,897 · 6 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #11,897
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 6 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,727
  • PHOTO-FINISH abstenir

Nearest frequency peer: abstenir (-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 « abuse »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « abuse » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

abuse vs aus
60% similar
abuse vs ase
60% similar
abuse vs aube
60% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for abuse
PropertyValue
Headwordabuse
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\a.byz\
Letters5
Frequency rank#11,897
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « abuse »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).abusese place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « abstenir » (#11,896), « acceptez » (#11,898), « Abidjan » (#11,895). Parmi 6,727 lemmes en « A », « abuse » est au #11,897. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 6 spelling variants around abuse (IPA \a.byz\), averb. Corpus frequency is #11,897 among 6,727 “A” headwords. Wiktionary lists 5 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for abuse, with forms such as "abbuse", "absue", and "abues". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "aus", "ase", "aube", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is abuse, spelled A-B-U-S-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe abuser.
  2. 2
    Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe abuser.
  3. 3
    Première personne du singulier du subjonctif présent du verbe abuser.
  4. 4
    Troisième personne du singulier du subjonctif présent du verbe abuser.
  5. 5
    Deuxième personne du singulier de l’impératif du verbe abuser.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how abuse appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. En partant de là, je vois que Dieu, en donnant aux hommes la loi de charité, leur en a donné la sanction dans la nécessité de la défense personnelle où conduit la douleur, que les lois de chaque société ont une sanction encore plus sainte et plus déségoïsée dans la défense de la société ; que toute sorte de guerre est la sanction terrible de la loi de Die…

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • abbuse
  • absue
  • abues
  • abusse
  • aubse
  • bause

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of abuse - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

abbuse1absue2abues2abusse1aubse2bause2
Edit distance from "abuse"

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 "abuse"?
"abuse" is spelled A-B-U-S-E. The IPA pronunciation is \a.byz\.
What does "abuse" mean?
As a verb, "abuse" means: Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe abuser.
What words are commonly confused with "abuse"?
"abuse" is commonly confused with "aus", "ase", "aube". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "abuse"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "abuse" is \a.byz\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "abuse" come from?
"abuse" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "abuse", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Arles#11,912voice#11,881tuant#11,872stats#11,864

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).

bosses6 variantsparoi6 variantsonly6 variantsmath6 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list