contemporain
\kɔ̃.tɑ̃.pɔ.ʁɛ̃\
The verdict
“contemporain” is a regularly-used French word, ranked #4,563 in French word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #4,563
- frequency rank, French
- 12
- letters
- 18
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Qui est du même temps que quelqu’un ou quelque chose.
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 | contemporain |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \kɔ̃.tɑ̃.pɔ.ʁɛ̃\ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Frequency rank | #4,563 |
| Misspellings tracked | 18 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “contemporain” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for contemporain is 12 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \kɔ̃.tɑ̃.pɔ.ʁɛ̃\. Corpus data places it at rank #4,563 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 18 likely wrong-spelling variants for contemporain, with forms such as "ccontemporain", "cnotemporain", and "conetmporain". 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 3 confusable-pair relationships, "contemporaine", "contemporains", "contemporaines", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is contemporain, spelled C-O-N-T-E-M-P-O-R-A-I-N.
Definition
- 1Qui est du même temps que quelqu’un ou quelque chose.
- 2Qualifie les historiens qui ont écrit les choses qui se sont passées dans leur temps.
- 3D’aujourd’hui, produit à l’époque actuelle, appartenant au temps présent.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccontemporain,cnotemporain,conetmporain,conntemporain,contemmporain,contemoprain,contempoarin,contemporainn,contemporani,contemporian,contemporrain,contempporain,contemproain,contepmorain,contmeporain,conttemporain,cotnemporain,ocntemporain
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of contemporain - 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.
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 "contemporain"?
What does "contemporain" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "contemporain"?
How do you pronounce "contemporain"?
What language does "contemporain" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “contemporain”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is C-O-N-T-E-M-P-O-R-A-I-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \kɔ̃.tɑ̃.pɔ.ʁɛ̃\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “contemporaine” - see the side-by-side comparison. contemporain vs contemporaine
- 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.