affreux

\a.fʁø\

/\a.fʁø\/ adj

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

The verdict

“affreux” has 8 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #8,649. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#8,649
frequency rank, French
6,727
“A” headwords
8
tracked misspellings
3
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui cause ou qui est propre à causer de la frayeur, de l’effroi.

Corpus desk

Index FR-affreux · affreux · French

affreux · rank #8,649 · 8 variants · 3 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #8,649
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 3 pairs
  • VAR-MID 8 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,727
  • PHOTO-FINISH affichage

Nearest frequency peer: affichage (-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 « affreux »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « affreux » 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).

affreux vs afflux
71% similar
affreux vs affres
71% similar
affreux vs affreuse
75% similar

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

Key facts for affreux
PropertyValue
Headwordaffreux
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\a.fʁø\
Letters7
Frequency rank#8,649
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs3
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « affreux »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).affreuxse 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 « affichage » (#8,648), « ajoutez » (#8,650), « Adrien » (#8,647). Parmi 6,727 lemmes en « A », « affreux » est au #8,649. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 8 spelling variants around affreux (IPA \a.fʁø\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #8,649 among 6,727 “A” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for affreux, with forms such as "afferux", "affreuxx", and "affrexu". 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 3 confusable-pair relationships, "afflux", "affres", "affreuse", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is affreux, spelled A-F-F-R-E-U-X.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui cause ou qui est propre à causer de la frayeur, de l’effroi.
  2. 2
    Qualifie une personne d’une grande laideur ou une chose très désagréable.
  3. 3
    Qualifie une personne fort dépravée, capable des actions les plus noires, les plus viles.
  4. 4
    Qualifie ce qui peut susciter une grande pénibilité ou une extrême douleur.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Le divorce entre la production et les producteurs va créer une économie abstraite, entièrement inconnue au Moyen Âge, et qui favorisera le développement de la plus affreuse pauvreté.
  2. Quand il voyait, sur le sable des allées un piquet de chat, il entrait aussitôt dans une colère affreuse.

Synonyms

effrayant

This word in other languages

dreadful(English)horrible(Español)entsetzlich(Deutsch)horrível(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • afferux
  • affreuxx
  • affrexu
  • affrreux
  • affruex
  • afreux
  • afrfeux
  • fafreux

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of affreux - 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.

afferux2affreuxx1affrexu2affrreux1affruex2afreux1afrfeux2fafreux2
Edit distance from "affreux"

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 "affreux"?
"affreux" is spelled A-F-F-R-E-U-X. The IPA pronunciation is \a.fʁø\.
What does "affreux" mean?
As an adjective, "affreux" means: Qui cause ou qui est propre à causer de la frayeur, de l’effroi.
What words are commonly confused with "affreux"?
"affreux" is commonly confused with "afflux", "affres", "affreuse". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "affreux"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "affreux" is \a.fʁø\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "affreux" come from?
"affreux" 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 "affreux", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

ajoutez#8,650évacuer#8,642battant#8,659boucles#8,663

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).

Adrien8 variantsacides8 variantssuffira8 variantsCyril8 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list