accent

/\ak.sɑ̃\/ noun

Letters

6 characters

Frequency Rank

#3,377

in French word usage

Misspellings

7

tracked variants

Confusables

20

similar word pairs

accent is aFrenchnoun. It means: Élévation de la voix sur une syllabe, dans un mot, modification de la voix dans la durée ou dans le ton des syllabes et des mots. Pronounced \ak.sɑ̃\. It ranks #3,377 in French word frequency. Often confused with accès and agent.

Key facts for accent
PropertyValue
Headwordaccent
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ak.sɑ̃\
Letters6
Frequency rank#3,377
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of accent in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for accent is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ak.sɑ̃\. Corpus data places it at rank #3,377 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for accent, with forms such as "accennt", "accentt", and "accetn". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "accès", "agent", "aient", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is accent, spelled A-C-C-E-N-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Élévation de la voix sur une syllabe, dans un mot, modification de la voix dans la durée ou dans le ton des syllabes et des mots.
  2. 2
    Lorsqu’il s’agit seulement de l’élévation de la voix sur une des syllabes du mot, on le nomme « accent tonique ».
  3. 3
    Intonation qui convient à l’expression des divers sentiments.
  4. 4
    Inflexions de voix ou de prononciations particulières à une nation ou aux habitants de certaines provinces.
  5. 5
    Courte augmentation de l’intensité sonore.
  6. 6
    Diacritique. Signe spécial qui se met sur une syllabe, soit pour faire connaître la prononciation de la voyelle, soit pour distinguer le sens d’un mot d’avec celui d’un autre mot qui s’écrit de même.
  7. 7
    Élément qui donne une impression, une ambiance.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: accennt,accentt,accetn,accnet,acecnt,acent,cacent

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for accent

Misspelling Variants of "accent"

accennt7accentt7accetn6accnet6acecnt6acent5cacent6
Misspelling Variants of "accent"

Frequency rank: #3,377 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "accent"?
"accent" is spelled A-C-C-E-N-T. The IPA pronunciation is \ak.sɑ̃\.
What does "accent" mean?
As a noun, "accent" means: Élévation de la voix sur une syllabe, dans un mot, modification de la voix dans la durée ou dans le ton des syllabes et des mots.
What words are commonly confused with "accent"?
"accent" is commonly confused with "accès", "agent", "aient". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "accent"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "accent" is \ak.sɑ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "accent" come from?
"accent" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter A in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.