continents
\kɔ̃.ti.nɑ̃\
The verdict
“continents” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #11,198 in French word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #11,198
- frequency rank, French
- 10
- letters
- 16
- tracked misspellings
- 9
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Masculin pluriel de continent.
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 | continents |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \kɔ̃.ti.nɑ̃\ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #11,198 |
| Misspellings tracked | 16 |
| Confusable pairs | 9 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “continents” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for continents is 10 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \kɔ̃.ti.nɑ̃\. Corpus data places it at rank #11,198 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Masculin pluriel de continent.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 16 likely wrong-spelling variants for continents, with forms such as "ccontinents", "cnotinents", and "conitnents". 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 9 confusable-pair relationships, "continuent", "contingent", "contingents", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is continents, spelled C-O-N-T-I-N-E-N-T-S.
Definition
- 1Masculin pluriel de continent.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccontinents,cnotinents,conitnents,conntinents,contiennts,continennts,continenst,continentss,continentts,continetns,continnents,continnets,contnients,conttinents,cotninents,ocntinents
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of continents - 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 "continents"?
What does "continents" mean?
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Using “continents”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is C-O-N-T-I-N-E-N-T-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \kɔ̃.ti.nɑ̃\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “continuent” - see the side-by-side comparison. continents vs continuent
- 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.