air

\ɛʁ\

/\ɛʁ\/ noun

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

The verdict

“air” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #341) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#341
frequency rank, French
6,727
“A” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Mélange gazeux constituant l’atmosphère.

Corpus desk

Index FR-air · air · French

air · rank #341 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #341
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,727
  • PHOTO-FINISH système

Nearest frequency peer: système (-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 “air”

Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “air” sits against the nearest ranked French headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.

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).

air vs au
33% similar
air vs As
0% similar
air vs an
33% similar

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

Key facts for air
PropertyValue
Headwordair
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ɛʁ\
Letters3
Frequency rank#341
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “air” sits in French frequency

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).air lands here:

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

The axis is logarithmic, with each marked tick roughly ten times rarer than the last. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for air is neighbouring look-alikes ("au", "As", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \ɛʁ\. Frequency #341 among 6,727 “A” headwords. 7 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

No generated misspelling entries exist for air in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "au", "As", "an", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is air, spelled A-I-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Mélange gazeux constituant l’atmosphère.
  2. 2
    Zone située au-dessus du sol.
  3. 3
    Température et qualité de ce que l'on respire.
  4. 4
    Vent.
  5. 5
    Tout gaz invisible.
  6. 6
    Partie de l’atmosphère où l’homme se meut à l’aide d’appareils construits et aménagés pour le vol.
  7. 7
    Élan.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Des ostioles uniquement respiratoires, ou, suivant l'expression consacrée, des stigmates placés symétriquement le long des côtés du corps, inhalent l’air atmosphérique et le transmettent dans des canaux, […].
  2. Par la fenêtre entr’ouverte, l’air entrait, gonflant comme une voile les rideaux de mousseline, et j’apercevais un pan de ciel bleu, […].

This word in other languages

air(English)aire(Español)Luft(Deutsch)ar(Português)

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.

PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "air"?
"air" is spelled A-I-R. The IPA pronunciation is \ɛʁ\.
What does "air" mean?
As a noun, "air" means: Mélange gazeux constituant l’atmosphère.
What words are commonly confused with "air"?
"air" is commonly confused with "au", "As", "an". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "air"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "air" is \ɛʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "air" come from?
"air" 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 "air", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

bas#343mis#339vue#361loi#300

What to do next

You've looked up "air". Here's where to go from here.

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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list