consternation
\kɔ̃s.tɛʁ.na.sjɔ̃\
The verdict
“consternation” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #31,417 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #31,417
- frequency rank, French
- 13
- letters
- 20
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Abattement profond à la suite de quelque accident inattendu.
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 | consternation |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \kɔ̃s.tɛʁ.na.sjɔ̃\ |
| Letters | 13 |
| Frequency rank | #31,417 |
| Misspellings tracked | 20 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “consternation” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for consternation is 13 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \kɔ̃s.tɛʁ.na.sjɔ̃\. Corpus data places it at rank #31,417 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Abattement profond à la suite de quelque accident inattendu.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 20 likely wrong-spelling variants for consternation, with forms such as "cconsternation", "cnosternation", and "connsternation". 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 2 confusable-pair relationships, "conservation", "constellation", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is consternation, spelled C-O-N-S-T-E-R-N-A-T-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1Abattement profond à la suite de quelque accident inattendu.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: cconsternation,cnosternation,connsternation,consetrnation,conssternation,constenration,consterantion,consternaiton,consternatino,consternationn,consternatoin,consternattion,consternnation,consterntaion,consterrnation,constrenation,constternation,contsernation,cosnternation,ocnsternation
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of consternation - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "consternation"?
What does "consternation" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "consternation"?
How do you pronounce "consternation"?
What language does "consternation" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “consternation”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is C-O-N-S-T-E-R-N-A-T-I-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \kɔ̃s.tɛʁ.na.sjɔ̃\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “conservation” - see the side-by-side comparison. consternation vs conservation
- 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.