certainement
\sɛʁ.tɛn.mɑ̃\
The verdict
“certainement” is a regularly-used French word, ranked #1,509 in French word frequency and used as an adverb.
- #1,509
- frequency rank, French
- 12
- letters
- 18
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - D'une manière certaine.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | certainement |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | \sɛʁ.tɛn.mɑ̃\ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Frequency rank | #1,509 |
| Misspellings tracked | 18 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “certainement” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for certainement is 12 letters long, classified as an adverb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \sɛʁ.tɛn.mɑ̃\. Corpus data places it at rank #1,509 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 18 likely wrong-spelling variants for certainement, with forms such as "ccertainement", "ceratinement", and "cerrtainement". 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. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
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 certainement, spelled C-E-R-T-A-I-N-E-M-E-N-T.
Definition
- 1D'une manière certaine.
- 2Sans doute ; en vérité ; assurément.
- 3Très probablement mais exprimant une certaine incertitude.
- 4Utilisé en ce sens pour marquer une certaine circonspection de manière atténuée, et qui signifie en définitive l’inverse de ce qu’il devrait signifier.
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccertainement,ceratinement,cerrtainement,certaienment,certaineemnt,certainemennt,certainementt,certainemetn,certainemment,certainemnet,certainmeent,certainnement,certaniement,certianement,certtainement,cetrainement,cretainement,ecrtainement
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of certainement - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "certainement"?
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Using “certainement”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is C-E-R-T-A-I-N-E-M-E-N-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \sɛʁ.tɛn.mɑ̃\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.