civilisation

Name: civilisation, French Word Data
Creator: Wiktionary
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

\si.vi.li.za.sjɔ̃\

/\si.vi.li.za.sjɔ̃\/ noun

By PlainSpell · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) · analyzed September 3, 2026

The verdict

“civilisation” has 17 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #4,472. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#4,472
frequency rank, French: 8,609
“C” headwords: 17
tracked misspellings: 1
confusable pair

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Action de civiliser ou état de ce qui est civilisé.

Corpus desk

Index FR-civilisation · civilisation · French

civilisation · rank #4,472 · 17 variants · 1 confusable

FREQ-COMMON #4,472
LEN-MEGA 12 letters
VOW-6 6 vowels
CONFUS-LOW 1 pairs
VAR-HIGH 17 variants
BOOK-DENSE 8,609
PHOTO-FINISH chimiques

Nearest frequency peer: chimiques (-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.

bosser

95,532
chanteuse

95,531
chimiques

95,530
civilisation

95,529
colonne

95,528
commerciaux

95,527

What this shows « civilisation » 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).

civilisation vs civilisations

92% similar

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

Key facts for civilisation
Property	Value
Headword	civilisation
Language	French
Part of speech	Noun
IPA	\si.vi.li.za.sjɔ̃\
Letters	12
Frequency rank	#4,472
Misspellings tracked	17
Confusable pairs	1
Source	Wiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « civilisation »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).civilisationse place ici:

#4,472

#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 « chimiques » (#4,471), « colonne » (#4,473), « chanteuse » (#4,470). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « civilisation » est au #4,472. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 17 spelling variants around civilisation (IPA \si.vi.li.za.sjɔ̃\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #4,472 among 8,609 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 17 likely wrong-spelling variants for civilisation, with forms such as "ccivilisation", "ciivlisation", and "civiilsation". 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 1 confusable-pair relationship, "civilisations", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is civilisation, spelled C-I-V-I-L-I-S-A-T-I-O-N.

Definition

1
Action de civiliser ou état de ce qui est civilisé.
2
Ensemble des connaissances, des mœurs, des idées d’un pays considéré comme civilisé.
3
État de développement économique, social et culturel élevé, en parlant d'un peuple.
4
Ensemble d’individus ayant en commun des mêmes éléments religieux, culturels, politiques et technologiques

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

À bon droit les Ministres de la Religion ont-ils le premier rang dans une société bien ordonnée. La religion est sans contredit le premier et le plus utile frein de l’humanité; c’est le premier ressort de la civilisation ; elle nous prêche et nous rappelle sans cesse la confraternité, elle adoucit notre cœur, etc.
La phase de civilisation dans laquelle se trouve ce peuple est encore bien éloignée de celle où nous sommes arrivés en Europe.

This word in other languages

civilization(English)civilización(Español)Zivilisation(Deutsch)civilização(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

ccivilisation
ciivlisation
civiilsation
civiliastion
civilisaiton
civilisatino
civilisationn
civilisatoin
civilisattion
civilissation
civilistaion
civillisation
civilsiation
civliisation
civvilisation
cviilisation
icvilisation

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

Edit distance from "civilisation"

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 "civilisation"?

"civilisation" is spelled C-I-V-I-L-I-S-A-T-I-O-N. The IPA pronunciation is \si.vi.li.za.sjɔ̃\.

What does "civilisation" mean?

As a noun, "civilisation" means: Action de civiliser ou état de ce qui est civilisé.

What words are commonly confused with "civilisation"?

"civilisation" is commonly confused with "civilisations". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.

How do you pronounce "civilisation"?

The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "civilisation" is \si.vi.li.za.sjɔ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.

What language does "civilisation" come from?

"civilisation" 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 "civilisation", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 12 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

déclarations#4,485 indépendants#4,495 souveraineté#4,446 manifestants#4,505

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (17 here; floor ≥5).

intellectuelle17 variants précédents17 variants modification17 variants présentant17 variants