critère

/\kʁi.tɛʁ\/ noun

Letters

7 characters

Frequency Rank

#7,046

in French word usage

Misspellings

11

tracked variants

Confusables

12

similar word pairs

critère is aFrenchnoun. It means: Ce qui sert à distinguer dans une chose le vrai du faux. Pronounced \kʁi.tɛʁ\. It ranks #7,046 in French word frequency. Often confused with critères and citer.

Key facts for critère
PropertyValue
Headwordcritère
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\kʁi.tɛʁ\
Letters7
Frequency rank#7,046
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs12
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of critère in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for critère is 7 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \kʁi.tɛʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #7,046 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 Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 11 documented wrong-spelling variants for critère, with forms such as "ccritère", "cirtère", and "critere". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 12 confusable-pair relationships, "critères", "citer", "crier", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is critère, spelled C-R-I-T-È-R-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Ce qui sert à distinguer dans une chose le vrai du faux.
  2. 2
    Caractéristique à laquelle on se réfère ou sur laquelle on se base pour choisir, classer, sélectionner quelque chose.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: ccritère,cirtère,critere,critrèe,crittère,critèer,critèrre,criètre,crritère,crtière,rcitère

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for critère

Misspelling Variants of "critère"

ccritère8cirtère7critere7critrèe7crittère8critèer7critèrre8criètre7
Misspelling Variants of "critère"

Frequency rank: #7,046 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "critère"?
"critère" is spelled C-R-I-T-È-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \kʁi.tɛʁ\.
What does "critère" mean?
As a noun, "critère" means: Ce qui sert à distinguer dans une chose le vrai du faux.
What words are commonly confused with "critère"?
"critère" is commonly confused with "critères", "citer", "crier". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "critère"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "critère" is \kʁi.tɛʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "critère" come from?
"critère" 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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter C in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.