citation

\si.ta.sjɔ̃\

/\si.ta.sjɔ̃\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“citation” has 11 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #4,840. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#4,840
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords
11
tracked misspellings
5
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Acte notifié à la partie qu’on veut obliger à comparaître devant un juge ou devant un tribunal.

Corpus desk

Index FR-citation · citation · French

citation · rank #4,840 · 11 variants · 5 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #4,840
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 5 pairs
  • VAR-MID 11 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH carrefour

Nearest frequency peer: carrefour (-2 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 « citation »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « citation » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

citation vs cotation
88% similar
citation vs creation
75% similar
citation vs citations
89% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for citation
PropertyValue
Headwordcitation
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\si.ta.sjɔ̃\
Letters8
Frequency rank#4,840
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs5
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « citation »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).citationse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « carrefour » (#4,838), « confort » (#4,842), « cardiaque » (#4,837). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « citation » est au #4,840. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 11 spelling variants around citation (IPA \si.ta.sjɔ̃\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #4,840 among 8,609 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for citation, with forms such as "ccitation", "ciattion", and "citaiton". 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 5 confusable-pair relationships, "cotation", "creation", "citations", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is citation, spelled C-I-T-A-T-I-O-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    Acte notifié à la partie qu’on veut obliger à comparaître devant un juge ou devant un tribunal.
  2. 2
    Action de rapporter avec exactitude, oralement ou par écrit, les propos ou textes d'une personne.
  3. 3
    Passage écrit ou oral rapporté exactement.
  4. 4
    Mention honorifique accordée à un soldat pour faits d'armes.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how citation appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Citation devant le juge de paix.
  2. Citation en conciliation.

This word in other languages

summons(English)cita(Español)Vorladung(Deutsch)citação(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ccitation
  • ciattion
  • citaiton
  • citatino
  • citationn
  • citatoin
  • citattion
  • cittaion
  • cittation
  • ctiation
  • ictation

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of citation - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

ccitation1ciattion2citaiton2citatino2citationn1citatoin2citattion1cittaion2
Edit distance from "citation"

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 "citation"?
"citation" is spelled C-I-T-A-T-I-O-N. The IPA pronunciation is \si.ta.sjɔ̃\.
What does "citation" mean?
As a noun, "citation" means: Acte notifié à la partie qu’on veut obliger à comparaître devant un juge ou devant un tribunal.
What words are commonly confused with "citation"?
"citation" is commonly confused with "cotation", "creation", "citations". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "citation"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "citation" is \si.ta.sjɔ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "citation" come from?
"citation" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "citation", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

benjamin#4,832attentes#4,830altitude#4,823Lorraine#4,870

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).

confort11 variantscarrefour11 variantsdépense11 variantsséparer11 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list