brillant

/\bʁi.jɑ̃\/ adj

Letters

8 characters

Frequency Rank

#4,912

in French word usage

Misspellings

11

tracked variants

Confusables

9

similar word pairs

brillant is anFrenchadj. It means: Qui brille. Pronounced \bʁi.jɑ̃\. It ranks #4,912 in French word frequency. Often confused with brûlant and brisant.

Key facts for brillant
PropertyValue
Headwordbrillant
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdj
IPA\bʁi.jɑ̃\
Letters8
Frequency rank#4,912
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs9
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for brillant is 8 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \bʁi.jɑ̃\. Corpus data places it at rank #4,912 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 Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 11 documented wrong-spelling variants for brillant, with forms such as "bbrillant", "birllant", and "brilalnt". 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 9 confusable-pair relationships, "brûlant", "brisant", "brillent", 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 brillant, spelled B-R-I-L-L-A-N-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui brille.
  2. 2
    Ce qui frappe vivement et agréablement les regards par le luxe, la pompe, la magnificence.
  3. 3
    Qualifie ce qui est très remarquable dans son genre ou qui frappe et saisit vivement l’esprit, l’imagination.
  4. 4
    En parlant d'un cheval dans une course, impétueux, allant, qui a l'encolure relevée, qui tire, qui va plus vite que ne le voudrait son cavalier.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: bbrillant,birllant,brilalnt,brilant,brillannt,brillantt,brillatn,brillnat,brlilant,brrillant,rbillant

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for brillant

Misspelling Variants of "brillant"

bbrillant9birllant8brilalnt8brilant7brillannt9brillantt9brillatn8brillnat8
Misspelling Variants of "brillant"

Frequency rank: #4,912 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "brillant"?
"brillant" is spelled B-R-I-L-L-A-N-T. The IPA pronunciation is \bʁi.jɑ̃\.
What does "brillant" mean?
As an adj, "brillant" means: Qui brille.
What words are commonly confused with "brillant"?
"brillant" is commonly confused with "brûlant", "brisant", "brillent". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "brillant"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "brillant" is \bʁi.jɑ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "brillant" come from?
"brillant" 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 B in our French index:

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