arbitraire

\aʁ.bi.tʁɛʁ\

/\aʁ.bi.tʁɛʁ\/ adj

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

The verdict

“arbitraire” has 14 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #9,958. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#9,958
frequency rank, French
6,727
“A” headwords
14
tracked misspellings
3
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui est produit par la seule volonté de l’homme, sans avoir de règle ni de fondement naturel.

Corpus desk

Index FR-arbitraire · arbitraire · French

arbitraire · rank #9,958 · 14 variants · 3 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #9,958
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 3 pairs
  • VAR-HIGH 14 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,727
  • PHOTO-FINISH appliquées

Nearest frequency peer: appliquées (-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 « arbitraire »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « arbitraire » 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).

arbitraire vs arbitrale
80% similar
arbitraire vs arbitraires
91% similar
arbitraire vs arbitrage
80% similar

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

Key facts for arbitraire
PropertyValue
Headwordarbitraire
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\aʁ.bi.tʁɛʁ\
Letters10
Frequency rank#9,958
Misspellings tracked14
Confusable pairs3
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « arbitraire »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).arbitrairese 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 « appliquées » (#9,957), « atteignent » (#9,959), « apercevoir » (#9,956). Parmi 6,727 lemmes en « A », « arbitraire » est au #9,958. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 14 spelling variants around arbitraire (IPA \aʁ.bi.tʁɛʁ\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #9,958 among 6,727 “A” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 14 likely wrong-spelling variants for arbitraire, with forms such as "abritraire", "arbbitraire", and "arbirtaire". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 3 confusable-pair relationships, "arbitrale", "arbitraires", "arbitrage", 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, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is arbitraire, spelled A-R-B-I-T-R-A-I-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui est produit par la seule volonté de l’homme, sans avoir de règle ni de fondement naturel.
  2. 2
    Qui dépend du choix de chaque personne ou de chaque administration, sans en référer à quiconque.
  3. 3
    Qui est laissé à la décision du juge.
  4. 4
    Qui n’a d’autre règle que la volonté, le caprice d’un maître.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Or, ce qui manque à l’éclectisme, c’est justement une base scientifique et positive; et ses prétendus dogmes ne sont pas moins arbitraires et cérébrins que les dogmes des églises.
  2. Il se souvint tout à coup d’une vieille chronique où il avait, pour flétrir, stigmatiser, juvénaliser les comportements bourgeois, […] projeté le feu rouge des catachrèses les plus imprévues, des synecdoches les plus arbitraires, des antonomases les plus follement tirées par les cheveux, […].

This word in other languages

arbitrary(English)arbitrario(Español)beliebig(Deutsch)arbitrário(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • abritraire
  • arbbitraire
  • arbirtaire
  • arbitarire
  • arbitraier
  • arbitrairre
  • arbitrarie
  • arbitriare
  • arbitrraire
  • arbittraire
  • arbtiraire
  • aribtraire
  • arrbitraire
  • rabitraire

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of arbitraire - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

abritraire2arbbitraire1arbirtaire2arbitarire2arbitraier2arbitrairre1arbitrarie2arbitriare2
Edit distance from "arbitraire"

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 "arbitraire"?
"arbitraire" is spelled A-R-B-I-T-R-A-I-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \aʁ.bi.tʁɛʁ\.
What does "arbitraire" mean?
As an adjective, "arbitraire" means: Qui est produit par la seule volonté de l’homme, sans avoir de règle ni de fondement naturel.
What words are commonly confused with "arbitraire"?
"arbitraire" is commonly confused with "arbitrale", "arbitraires", "arbitrage". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "arbitraire"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "arbitraire" is \aʁ.bi.tʁɛʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "arbitraire" come from?
"arbitraire" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "arbitraire", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

appliquées#9,957atteignent#9,959apercevoir#9,956abandonnés#9,952

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (14 here; floor ≥5).

canadiennes14 variantséventuels14 variantscomédiens14 variantsdirectoire14 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list