colonisation
\kɔ.lɔ.ni.za.sjɔ̃\
The verdict
“colonisation” is a regularly-used French word, ranked #5,536 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #5,536
- frequency rank, French
- 12
- letters
- 17
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Action d’envoyer sur un territoire éloigné, déjà occupé ou non, des personnes chargées d’occuper ce territoire, la colonie, généralement au détriment des autochtones.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | colonisation |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \kɔ.lɔ.ni.za.sjɔ̃\ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Frequency rank | #5,536 |
| Misspellings tracked | 17 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “colonisation” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for colonisation is 12 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \kɔ.lɔ.ni.za.sjɔ̃\. Corpus data places it at rank #5,536 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 17 likely wrong-spelling variants for colonisation, with forms such as "ccolonisation", "cloonisation", and "collonisation". 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, "canonisation", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is colonisation, spelled C-O-L-O-N-I-S-A-T-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1Action d’envoyer sur un territoire éloigné, déjà occupé ou non, des personnes chargées d’occuper ce territoire, la colonie, généralement au détriment des autochtones.
- 2De 1860 à 1940 environ, action politique consistant à envoyer des habitants des régions déjà habitées vers des régions nouvelles (Charlevoix, Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, pays d’en haut, Témiscouata, Abitibi, Témiscamingue) pour occuper le territoire québécois et contrer l'émigration.
- 3Introduction d'une espèce dans un espace qui en était dépourvue.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccolonisation,cloonisation,collonisation,colnoisation,coloinsation,coloniastion,colonisaiton,colonisatino,colonisationn,colonisatoin,colonisattion,colonissation,colonistaion,colonnisation,colonsiation,coolnisation,oclonisation
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of colonisation - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 "colonisation"?
What does "colonisation" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "colonisation"?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “colonisation”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is C-O-L-O-N-I-S-A-T-I-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \kɔ.lɔ.ni.za.sjɔ̃\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “canonisation” - see the side-by-side comparison. colonisation vs canonisation
- 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.