controverse
\kɔ̃.tʁɔ.vɛʁs\
The verdict
“controverse” is a regularly-used French word, ranked #8,830 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #8,830
- frequency rank, French
- 11
- letters
- 17
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Débat sur une question, sur une opinion, etc. suscité par des avis divergents.
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 | controverse |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \kɔ̃.tʁɔ.vɛʁs\ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #8,830 |
| Misspellings tracked | 17 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “controverse” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for controverse is 11 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \kɔ̃.tʁɔ.vɛʁs\. Corpus data places it at rank #8,830 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 17 likely wrong-spelling variants for controverse, with forms such as "ccontroverse", "cnotroverse", and "conntroverse". 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, "controversée", "controversés", "controversées", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is controverse, spelled C-O-N-T-R-O-V-E-R-S-E.
Definition
- 1Débat sur une question, sur une opinion, etc. suscité par des avis divergents.
- 2Dispute qui a pour objet des points de foi.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccontroverse,cnotroverse,conntroverse,conrtoverse,contorverse,controevrse,controveres,controverrse,controversse,controvesre,controvrese,controvverse,contrroverse,contrvoerse,conttroverse,cotnroverse,ocntroverse
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of controverse - 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 "controverse"?
What does "controverse" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "controverse"?
How do you pronounce "controverse"?
What language does "controverse" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “controverse”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is C-O-N-T-R-O-V-E-R-S-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \kɔ̃.tʁɔ.vɛʁs\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “controversée” - see the side-by-side comparison. controverse vs controversée
- 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.