centre

/\sɑ̃tʁ\/ noun

Letters

6 characters

Frequency Rank

#344

in French word usage

Misspellings

8

tracked variants

Confusables

20

similar word pairs

centre is aFrenchnoun. It means: Point qui, dans un cercle ou une sphère, est à égale distance de tous les points de la circonférence de ce cercle ou de la surface de cette sphère. Pronounced \sɑ̃tʁ\. It ranks #344 in French word frequency. Often confused with cette and cents.

Key facts for centre
PropertyValue
Headwordcentre
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\sɑ̃tʁ\
Letters6
Frequency rank#344
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for centre is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \sɑ̃tʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #344 in overall French word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 12 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 8 documented wrong-spelling variants for centre, with forms such as "ccentre", "cenntre", and "cenrte". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "cette", "cents", "conte", 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 centre, spelled C-E-N-T-R-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Point qui, dans un cercle ou une sphère, est à égale distance de tous les points de la circonférence de ce cercle ou de la surface de cette sphère.
  2. 2
    Milieu d’un espace.
  3. 3
    Point le plus important d’une entité géographique.
  4. 4
    Partie d’une armée, d’une troupe rangée en bataille, qui occupe le milieu, qui est entre les deux ailes.
  5. 5
    Termes regroupant les mouvements politiques qui défendent des compromis entre les valeurs prônées par la droite et celles prônées par la gauche quand ces valeurs paraissent contradictoires (selon le genre de compromis généralement défendus, on parle de centre droit ou de centre gauche).
  6. 6
    Point autour duquel ou vers lequel, dans lequel s’opèrent ou se rassemblent certains effets.
  7. 7
    Lieu où se trouvent, où se font, où se pratiquent habituellement ou plus ordinairement certaines choses. → voir centrale.
  8. 8
    Choses auxquelles plusieurs autres se rapportent ou sont subordonnées. On le dit quelquefois des personnes dans un sens analogue.
  9. 9
    Envoi du ballon vers le centre du terrain.
  10. 10
    Joueur se trouvant au centre de la ligne d’attaque.
  11. 11
    Joueur se trouvant au centre de la ligne d’attaque, entre les deux ailiers.
  12. 12
    Ensemble des quatre cases du milieu de l’échiquier (d4, d5, e4, e5).

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: ccentre,cenntre,cenrte,centrre,centtre,cetnre,cnetre,ecntre

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for centre

Misspelling Variants of "centre"

ccentre7cenntre7cenrte6centrre7centtre7cetnre6cnetre6ecntre6
Misspelling Variants of "centre"

Frequency rank: #344 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "centre"?
"centre" is spelled C-E-N-T-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \sɑ̃tʁ\.
What does "centre" mean?
As a noun, "centre" means: Point qui, dans un cercle ou une sphère, est à égale distance de tous les points de la circonférence de ce cercle ou de la surface de cette sphère.
What words are commonly confused with "centre"?
"centre" is commonly confused with "cette", "cents", "conte". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "centre"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "centre" is \sɑ̃tʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "centre" come from?
"centre" 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 C in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

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