catastrophe
\ka.ta.stʁɔf\
The verdict
“catastrophe” has 17 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #4,409. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #4,409
- frequency rank, French
- 8,609
- “C” headwords
- 17
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Événement soudain, qui, bouleversant le cours des choses, amène la destruction, la ruine, la mort.
Corpus desk
Index FR-catastrophe · catastrophe · French
catastrophe · rank #4,409 · 17 variants · 1 confusable
- FREQ-COMMON #4,409
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-LOW 1 pairs
- VAR-HIGH 17 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 8,609
- PHOTO-FINISH cannes
Nearest frequency peer: cannes (-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 « catastrophe »
Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin
- bronze
bronze
95,595 corpus weight
- calais
calais
95,594 corpus weight
- cannes
cannes
95,593 corpus weight
- catastrophe
catastrophe
95,592 corpus weight
- chair
chair
95,591 corpus weight
- cherchez
cherchez
95,590 corpus weight
What this shows « catastrophe » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.
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 | catastrophe |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ka.ta.stʁɔf\ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #4,409 |
| Misspellings tracked | 17 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « catastrophe »
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 17 spelling variants around catastrophe (IPA \ka.ta.stʁɔf\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #4,409 among 8,609 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 17 likely wrong-spelling variants for catastrophe, with forms such as "actastrophe", "caatstrophe", and "catasrtophe". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "catastrophes", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is catastrophe, spelled C-A-T-A-S-T-R-O-P-H-E.
Definition
- 1Événement soudain, qui, bouleversant le cours des choses, amène la destruction, la ruine, la mort.
- 2Désastre ; calamité.
- 3Dénouement funeste d’une tragédie.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how catastrophe appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Après une semaine fertile en péripéties et en catastrophes, Hervé, depuis la résurrection d'Alain Kernoul, venait de passer bien des heures paisibles.
Bert avait suivi les péripéties de la catastrophe, depuis la séparation des eaux jusqu’à la culée du pont.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- actastrophe
- caatstrophe
- catasrtophe
- catasstrophe
- catastorphe
- catastrohpe
- catastropeh
- catastrophhe
- catastropphe
- catastrpohe
- catastrrophe
- catasttrophe
- catatsrophe
- catsatrophe
- cattastrophe
- ccatastrophe
- ctaastrophe
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of catastrophe - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "catastrophe"?
What does "catastrophe" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "catastrophe"?
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "catastrophe", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (17 here; floor ≥5).