cité

\si.te\

/\si.te\/ noun

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

The verdict

“cité” has 6 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #1,224. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#1,224
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords
6
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Ville, surtout quand on veut en faire ressortir l’importance.

Corpus desk

Index FR-cite · cité · French

cité · rank #1,224 · 6 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #1,224
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 6 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH clients

Nearest frequency peer: clients (+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 « cité »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « cité » 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).

cité vs Ct
25% similar
cité vs clé
50% similar
cité vs CPE
0% similar

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

Key facts for cité
PropertyValue
Headwordcité
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\si.te\
Letters4
Frequency rank#1,224
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « cité »

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

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « clients » (#1,225), « capable » (#1,222), « connaissance » (#1,226). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « cité » est au #1,224. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 6 spelling variants around cité (IPA \si.te\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #1,224 among 8,609 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 13 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for cité, with forms such as "ccité", "cite", and "citté". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Ct", "clé", "CPE", 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 easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is cité, spelled C-I-T-É.

Definition

  1. 1
    Ville, surtout quand on veut en faire ressortir l’importance.
  2. 2
    Habitants d’une ville ; ensemble des citoyens qui la composent.
  3. 3
    Citoyenneté.
  4. 4
    Constitution de l’État, dans les expressions :
  5. 5
    Territoire composé quelquefois de villes et de bourgades et gouverné par des lois communes.
  6. 6
    Partie la plus ancienne de la ville et où se trouve l’église cathédrale ou principale.
  7. 7
    Groupe de maisons formant un ensemble.
  8. 8
    Groupe de maisons formant un ensemble.
  9. 9
    Dans certaines grandes villes, ensemble de maisons individuelles formant un ensemble clos.
  10. 10
    Banlieue d’une grande ville.
  11. 11
    Ensemble architectural d’habitats collectifs.
  12. 12
    Espace démocratique, réunissant souvent les affaires politiques d’un pays entier ou d’une région, mais nommé cité en référence à Aristote et aux cités-États de jadis, et en référence à la citoyenneté et aux devoirs de citoyen.
  13. 13
    Statut d'une municipalité équivalent au terme anglais city, supérieur à celui d'une ville.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Le plateau sur lequel est assise la cité de Carcassonne commande la vallée de l’Aude, qui coule au pied de ce plateau, […].
  2. La ville avait la réputation d’être imprenable ; son château s’élevait à l’est et la ceinture de murailles qui entourait la cité venait s’y attacher […]

This word in other languages

city(English)ciudad(Español)Ort(Deutsch)cidade(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ccité
  • cite
  • citté
  • ciét
  • ctié
  • icté

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cité - 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.

ccité1cite1citté1ciét2ctié2icté2
Edit distance from "cité"

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 "cité"?
"cité" is spelled C-I-T-É. The IPA pronunciation is \si.te\.
What does "cité" mean?
As a noun, "cité" means: Ville, surtout quand on veut en faire ressortir l’importance.
What words are commonly confused with "cité"?
"cité" is commonly confused with "Ct", "clé", "CPE". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "cité"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "cité" is \si.te\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "cité" come from?
"cité" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

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

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

rêve#1,210week#1,244John#1,203camp#1,199

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).

usage6 variantsbeaux6 variantsvraie6 variantsligue6 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list