contest
\ˈkɒn.tɛst\
The verdict
“contest” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #39,722 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #39,722
- frequency rank, French
- 7
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Concours.
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 | contest |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ˈkɒn.tɛst\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #39,722 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “contest” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for contest is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ˈkɒn.tɛst\. Corpus data places it at rank #39,722 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Concours.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for contest, with forms such as "ccontest", "cnotest", and "conetst". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "côtes", "coptes", "contrat", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is contest, spelled C-O-N-T-E-S-T.
Definition
- 1Concours.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccontest,cnotest,conetst,conntest,contesst,contestt,contets,contset,conttest,cotnest,ocntest
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of contest - 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 "contest"?
What does "contest" mean?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “contest”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is C-O-N-T-E-S-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ˈkɒn.tɛst\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “côtes” - see the side-by-side comparison. contest vs côtes
- 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.