contrevenir

\kɔ̃.tʁə.vniʁ\

/\kɔ̃.tʁə.vniʁ\/ verb

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

The verdict

“contrevenir” is uncommon French (frequency #56,515 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#56,515
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Agir contre une loi, une défense, un ordre, etc., ou contre une obligation que l’on a contractée.

Corpus desk

Index FR-contrevenir · contrevenir · French

contrevenir · rank #56,515 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #56,515
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH contractuelle…

Nearest frequency peer: contractuellement (-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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « contrevenir »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « contrevenir » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for contrevenir
PropertyValue
Headwordcontrevenir
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\kɔ̃.tʁə.vniʁ\
Letters11
Frequency rank#56,515
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « contrevenir » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).contrevenirtombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « contractuellement » (#56,514), « convainquent » (#56,516), « contorsions » (#56,513). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « contrevenir » est au #56,515. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

contrevenir is uncommon French at frequency #56,515 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \kɔ̃.tʁə.vniʁ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Agir contre une loi, une défense, un ordre, etc., ou contre une obligation que l’on a contractée.".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for contrevenir, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is contrevenir, spelled C-O-N-T-R-E-V-E-N-I-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Agir contre une loi, une défense, un ordre, etc., ou contre une obligation que l’on a contractée.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Et d'autre part, toujours plus intransigeant quant à l'application de ses canons, le clergé exige, au concile de Paris (614), que les juifs qui contreviendraient à l'interdiction d'exercer des fonctions publiques, soient convertis au christianisme.
  2. Encore fallait-il savoir quand, où, et comment, nous prenions le risque de contrevenir aux lois de l'Église, notre mère fouettarde. Car en cas de flagrant délit, on nous promettait la géhenne, on imaginait de vertigineuses oubliettes où seraient jetés les coupables.

This word in other languages

contravene(English)contravenir(Español)entgegenwirken(Deutsch)reagir(Português)

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 "contrevenir"?
"contrevenir" is spelled C-O-N-T-R-E-V-E-N-I-R. The IPA pronunciation is \kɔ̃.tʁə.vniʁ\.
What does "contrevenir" mean?
As a verb, "contrevenir" means: Agir contre une loi, une défense, un ordre, etc., ou contre une obligation que l’on a contractée.
How do you pronounce "contrevenir"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "contrevenir" is \kɔ̃.tʁə.vniʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "contrevenir" come from?
"contrevenir" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 "contrevenir", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

contorsions#56,513considérera#56,510coercitives#56,498discuterons#56,550

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list