ancêtre

/\ɑ̃.sɛtʁ\/ noun

Letters

7 characters

Frequency Rank

#13,311

in French word usage

Misspellings

11

tracked variants

Confusables

4

similar word pairs

ancêtre is aFrenchnoun. It means: Celui ou celle de qui l’on descend par son père ou sa mère. Pronounced \ɑ̃.sɛtʁ\. Often confused with ancre and antre.

Key facts for ancêtre
PropertyValue
Headwordancêtre
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ɑ̃.sɛtʁ\
Letters7
Frequency rank#13,311
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs4
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of ancêtre in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for ancêtre is 7 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ɑ̃.sɛtʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #13,311 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 11 documented wrong-spelling variants for ancêtre, with forms such as "acnêtre", "anccêtre", and "ancetre". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "ancre", "antre", "Annette", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is ancêtre, spelled A-N-C-Ê-T-R-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Celui ou celle de qui l’on descend par son père ou sa mère.
  2. 2
    Ceux qui sont au-dessus du degré de grand-parent.
  3. 3
    Tous ceux qui nous ont devancés, encore que nous ne soyons pas de leur ethnie.
  4. 4
    Personne âgée, du troisième âge.
  5. 5
    Ce qui a précédé quelque chose d’autre dans l’histoire.

Synonyms

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: acnêtre,anccêtre,ancetre,anctêre,ancêrte,ancêter,ancêtrre,ancêttre,anncêtre,anêctre,nacêtre

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for ancêtre

Misspelling Variants of "ancêtre"

acnêtre7anccêtre8ancetre7anctêre7ancêrte7ancêter7ancêtrre8ancêttre8
Misspelling Variants of "ancêtre"

Frequency rank: #13,311 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "ancêtre"?
"ancêtre" is spelled A-N-C-Ê-T-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ɑ̃.sɛtʁ\.
What does "ancêtre" mean?
As a noun, "ancêtre" means: Celui ou celle de qui l’on descend par son père ou sa mère.
What words are commonly confused with "ancêtre"?
"ancêtre" is commonly confused with "ancre", "antre", "Annette". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "ancêtre"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "ancêtre" is \ɑ̃.sɛtʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "ancêtre" come from?
"ancêtre" 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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter A in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.