adieu
\a.djø\
The verdict
“adieu” has 5 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #5,419. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #5,419
- frequency rank, French
- 6,727
- “A” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Terme de civilité et d’amitié dont on se sert en prenant congé de quelqu’un qu’on ne reverra plus pendant une longue période, si ce n’est jamais.
Corpus desk
Index FR-adieu · adieu · French
adieu · rank #5,419 · 5 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #5,419
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,727
- PHOTO-FINISH abbaye
Nearest frequency peer: abbaye (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “adieu”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- étages
étages
94,585 corpus weight
- étudiante
étudiante
94,584 corpus weight
- abbaye
abbaye
94,583 corpus weight
- adieu
adieu
94,582 corpus weight
- alentours
alentours
94,581 corpus weight
- analyser
analyser
94,579 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “adieu” sits against the nearest ranked French headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | adieu |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| IPA | \a.djø\ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #5,419 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Où “adieu” se place dans la fréquence du français
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around adieu (IPA \a.djø\), aninterjection. Corpus frequency is #5,419 among 6,727 “A” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for adieu, with forms such as "addieu", "adeiu", and "adiue". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "aïe", "amie", "Asie", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is adieu, spelled A-D-I-E-U.
Definition
- 1Terme de civilité et d’amitié dont on se sert en prenant congé de quelqu’un qu’on ne reverra plus pendant une longue période, si ce n’est jamais.
- 2ou Sert pour dire « Au revoir ».
- 3Se dit pour saluer une ou des connaissances de façon amicale.
- 4Se dit d’une personne qui est dans un péril évident ou d’une chose qui court un grand risque.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how adieu appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Adieu, je m’en vais. — Je ne veux vous dire que « bonjour » et « adieu ». — Il est allé dire « adieu » à untel.
Il ne dit jamais « adieu » à ses amis. — Il ne lui a même pas dit « adieu ». — Il y eut bien des larmes répandues quand ils se dirent « adieu ».
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- addieu
- adeiu
- adiue
- aideu
- daieu
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of adieu - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 "adieu"?
What does "adieu" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "adieu"?
How do you pronounce "adieu"?
What language does "adieu" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "adieu", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "adieu". Here's where to go from here.
- "adieu" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "aïe". View pair
- 5 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #5,419 among French headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more French words in the "A" letter cohort. A–Z browse
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.