contraire
\kɔ̃.tʁɛʁ\
The verdict
“contraire” is in the everyday core of French, ranked #868 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #868
- frequency rank, French
- 9
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 10
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Concept inverse, logiquement opposé.
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 | contraire |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \kɔ̃.tʁɛʁ\ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #868 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 10 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “contraire” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for contraire is 9 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \kɔ̃.tʁɛʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #868 in overall French word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Concept inverse, logiquement opposé.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for contraire, with forms such as "ccontraire", "cnotraire", and "conntraire". 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 10 confusable-pair relationships, "contraste", "contrarie", "contraires", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is contraire, spelled C-O-N-T-R-A-I-R-E.
Definition
- 1Concept inverse, logiquement opposé.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccontraire,cnotraire,conntraire,conrtaire,contarire,contraier,contrairre,contriare,contrraire,conttraire,cotnraire,ocntraire
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of contraire - 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
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Using “contraire”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is C-O-N-T-R-A-I-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \kɔ̃.tʁɛʁ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “contraste” - see the side-by-side comparison. contraire vs contraste
- 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.