adolescence

\a.dɔ.lɛ.sɑ̃s\

/\a.dɔ.lɛ.sɑ̃s\/ noun

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

The verdict

“adolescence” has 16 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #7,268. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#7,268
frequency rank, French
6,727
“A” headwords
16
tracked misspellings
4
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Période de la vie comprise entre le moment où l’être humain entre dans la puberté et le moment où il atteint la majorité civile, où il sera alors considéré comme un adulte.

Corpus desk

Index FR-adolescence · adolescence · French

adolescence · rank #7,268 · 16 variants · 4 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #7,268
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 4 pairs
  • VAR-HIGH 16 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,727
  • PHOTO-FINISH achevé

Nearest frequency peer: achevé (-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 « adolescence »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « adolescence » 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).

adolescence vs adolescent
82% similar
adolescence vs adolescents
82% similar
adolescence vs adolescente
91% similar

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

Key facts for adolescence
PropertyValue
Headwordadolescence
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\a.dɔ.lɛ.sɑ̃s\
Letters11
Frequency rank#7,268
Misspellings tracked16
Confusable pairs4
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « adolescence »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.adolescencese place ici:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « achevé » (#7,267), « alternatives » (#7,269), « étroite » (#7,266). Parmi 6,727 lemmes en « A », « adolescence » est au #7,268. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 16 spelling variants around adolescence (IPA \a.dɔ.lɛ.sɑ̃s\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #7,268 among 6,727 “A” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 16 likely wrong-spelling variants for adolescence, with forms such as "addolescence", "adloescence", and "adoelscence". 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 4 confusable-pair relationships, "adolescent", "adolescents", "adolescente", and more, 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 its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is adolescence, spelled A-D-O-L-E-S-C-E-N-C-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Période de la vie comprise entre le moment où l’être humain entre dans la puberté et le moment où il atteint la majorité civile, où il sera alors considéré comme un adulte.
  2. 2
    Les premiers temps.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Il y a six degrés d’âges ; savoir : l’enfance proprement dite, infantia ; la seconde enfance, pueritia ; l’adolescence, la virilité, la vieillesse et la décrépitude.
  2. Cependant Emma avait treize ans et Albert dix-huit ; leur cœur, comme une rose en bouton, allait s’ouvrir au premier souffle de l’adolescence.

Synonyms

jeunesse

Antonyms

adulteenfance

This word in other languages

adolescence(English)adolescencia(Español)Adoleszenz(Deutsch)adolescência(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • addolescence
  • adloescence
  • adoelscence
  • adolecsence
  • adolesccence
  • adolescecne
  • adolescencce
  • adolescenec
  • adolescennce
  • adolescnece
  • adolesecnce
  • adolesscence
  • adollescence
  • adolsecence
  • aodlescence
  • daolescence

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of adolescence - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

addolescence1adloescence2adoelscence2adolecsence2adolesccence1adolescecne2adolescencce1adolescenec2
Edit distance from "adolescence"

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 "adolescence"?
"adolescence" is spelled A-D-O-L-E-S-C-E-N-C-E. The IPA pronunciation is \a.dɔ.lɛ.sɑ̃s\.
What does "adolescence" mean?
As a noun, "adolescence" means: Période de la vie comprise entre le moment où l’être humain entre dans la puberté et le moment où il atteint la majorité civile, où il sera alors considéré comme un adulte.
What words are commonly confused with "adolescence"?
"adolescence" is commonly confused with "adolescent", "adolescents", "adolescente". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "adolescence"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "adolescence" is \a.dɔ.lɛ.sɑ̃s\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "adolescence" come from?
"adolescence" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

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

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

centimètres#7,284conducteurs#7,292dispositifs#7,304dissolution#7,305

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (16 here; floor ≥5).

surprendre16 variantsdifféremment16 variantspédagogique16 variantsfraternité16 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list