arbitraire
\aʁ.bi.tʁɛʁ\
The verdict
“arbitraire” is a regularly-used French word, ranked #9,958 in French word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #9,958
- frequency rank, French
- 10
- letters
- 14
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Qui est produit par la seule volonté de l’homme, sans avoir de règle ni de fondement naturel.
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 | arbitraire |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \aʁ.bi.tʁɛʁ\ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #9,958 |
| Misspellings tracked | 14 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “arbitraire” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for arbitraire is 10 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \aʁ.bi.tʁɛʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #9,958 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
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
- 1Qui est produit par la seule volonté de l’homme, sans avoir de règle ni de fondement naturel.
- 2Qui dépend du choix de chaque personne ou de chaque administration, sans en référer à quiconque.
- 3Qui est laissé à la décision du juge.
- 4Qui n’a d’autre règle que la volonté, le caprice d’un maître.
This word in other languages
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.
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"?
What does "arbitraire" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "arbitraire"?
How do you pronounce "arbitraire"?
What language does "arbitraire" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “arbitraire”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is A-R-B-I-T-R-A-I-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \aʁ.bi.tʁɛʁ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “arbitrale” - see the side-by-side comparison. arbitraire vs arbitrale
- 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.