ancêtre
\ɑ̃.sɛtʁ\
The verdict
“ancêtre” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #13,311 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #13,311
- frequency rank, French
- 7
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Celui ou celle de qui l’on descend par son père ou sa mère.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ancêtre |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ɑ̃.sɛtʁ\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #13,311 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ancêtre” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for ancêtre is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, 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 generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for ancêtre, with forms such as "acnêtre", "anccêtre", and "ancetre". 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 4 confusable-pair relationships, "ancre", "antre", "Annette", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is ancêtre, spelled A-N-C-Ê-T-R-E.
Definition
- 1Celui ou celle de qui l’on descend par son père ou sa mère.
- 2Ceux qui sont au-dessus du degré de grand-parent.
- 3Tous ceux qui nous ont devancés, encore que nous ne soyons pas de leur ethnie.
- 4Personne âgée, du troisième âge.
- 5Ce qui a précédé quelque chose d’autre dans l’histoire.
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
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of ancêtre - 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.
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 "ancêtre"?
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Using “ancêtre”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is A-N-C-Ê-T-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ɑ̃.sɛtʁ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “ancre” - see the side-by-side comparison. ancêtre vs ancre
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
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.