alternation
\al.tɛʁ.na.sjɔ̃\
The verdict
“alternation” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Faculté d'alterner.
Corpus desk
Index FR-alternation · alternation · French
alternation · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "A" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | alternation |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \al.tɛʁ.na.sjɔ̃\ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « alternation » en français
Rare enough to double-check
alternation is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \al.tɛʁ.na.sjɔ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for alternation in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is alternation, spelled A-L-T-E-R-N-A-T-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1Faculté d'alterner.
- 2Action d'alterner.
- 3Fait de devenir un autre, de changer de culture, de religion, de parti ou de croyances, et donc d’identité.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how alternation appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
La matière mise en délibération, il a esté unanimement arrêté qu'on diputerait auprès de l'Assemblée nationale un citoyen éclairé pour suivre le plan du comité chargé de la division du royaume et faire tous ses efforts pour obtenir que Montargis ait la conservation d'une cour souveraine dont elle jouit depuis 1638 avec l'alternation d'un chef-lieu de dépa…
L'examen microscopique de la tige pilaire indique l'alternation périodique de renflements fusiformes d'environ 1 mm de long séparés par des zones de rétrécissement où siègent les fractures.
Synonyms
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.