contamination

\kɔ̃.ta.mi.na.sjɔ̃\

/\kɔ̃.ta.mi.na.sjɔ̃\/ noun

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

The verdict

“contamination” has 19 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #12,134. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#12,134
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords
19
tracked misspellings
2
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Souillure qui résulte du contact d’un objet impur, malpropre ou contaminant.

Corpus desk

Index FR-contamination · contamination · French

contamination · rank #12,134 · 19 variants · 2 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #12,134
  • LEN-MEGA 13 letters
  • VOW-6 6 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 2 pairs
  • VAR-HIGH 19 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH contactez

Nearest frequency peer: contactez (-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 « contamination »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « contamination » 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).

contamination vs contaminations
93% similar
contamination vs condamnation
85% similar

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

Key facts for contamination
PropertyValue
Headwordcontamination
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\kɔ̃.ta.mi.na.sjɔ̃\
Letters13
Frequency rank#12,134
Misspellings tracked19
Confusable pairs2
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « contamination »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.contaminationse 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 « contactez » (#12,133), « contentieux » (#12,135), « conservée » (#12,132). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « contamination » est au #12,134. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 19 spelling variants around contamination (IPA \kɔ̃.ta.mi.na.sjɔ̃\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #12,134 among 8,609 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 7 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 19 likely wrong-spelling variants for contamination, with forms such as "ccontamination", "cnotamination", and "conatmination". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "contaminations", "condamnation", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is contamination, spelled C-O-N-T-A-M-I-N-A-T-I-O-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    Souillure qui résulte du contact d’un objet impur, malpropre ou contaminant.
  2. 2
    Infection produite par une maladie contagieuse.
  3. 3
    Contamination mentale.
  4. 4
    Introduction ou présence d’un contaminant dans un aliment ou dans un environnement alimentaire.
  5. 5
    Contamination radioactive.
  6. 6
    Contamination de vestiges anciens par des radionucléides faussant les méthodes de datation basée sur la mesure de la composition isotopique.
  7. 7
    Changement phonétique ou grammatical par l’influence d’un autre mot sémantiquement proche ou d'une autre langue.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Ce sont les plaies faites maladroitement, par les barbiers d’occasion, à l'aide de mauvais rasoirs, voire même de couteaux, plus ou moins bien affilés, qui créent des portes d'entrée à la contamination.
  2. Ce sont les excrétats virulents, en particulier les urines aérosolisées qui assurent la contamination des animaux et de l'homme.

Antonyms

décontamination

This word in other languages

contamination(English)contaminación(Español)Kontamination(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ccontamination
  • cnotamination
  • conatmination
  • conntamination
  • contaimnation
  • contamiantion
  • contaminaiton
  • contaminatino
  • contaminationn
  • contaminatoin
  • contaminattion
  • contaminnation
  • contamintaion
  • contammination
  • contamniation
  • contmaination
  • conttamination
  • cotnamination
  • ocntamination

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

ccontamination1cnotamination2conatmination2conntamination1contaimnation2contamiantion2contaminaiton2contaminatino2
Edit distance from "contamination"

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 "contamination"?
"contamination" is spelled C-O-N-T-A-M-I-N-A-T-I-O-N. The IPA pronunciation is \kɔ̃.ta.mi.na.sjɔ̃\.
What does "contamination" mean?
As a noun, "contamination" means: Souillure qui résulte du contact d’un objet impur, malpropre ou contaminant.
What words are commonly confused with "contamination"?
"contamination" is commonly confused with "contaminations", "condamnation". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "contamination"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "contamination" is \kɔ̃.ta.mi.na.sjɔ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "contamination" come from?
"contamination" 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 "contamination", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 13 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

connaissaient#12,131certification#12,123bienveillance#12,111affrontements#12,093

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (19 here; floor ≥5).

ecclésiastique19 variantsindemnisation19 variantsreprésentées19 variantsprédécesseurs19 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list