critique
\kʁi.tik\
The verdict
“critique” is in the everyday core of French, ranked #934 in French word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #934
- frequency rank, French
- 8
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 11
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Qui annonce une crise, qui a rapport à la crise.
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 | critique |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \kʁi.tik\ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #934 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 11 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “critique” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for critique is 8 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \kʁi.tik\. Corpus data places it at rank #934 in overall French word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for critique, with forms such as "ccritique", "cirtique", and "criitque". 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 11 confusable-pair relationships, "critiquer", "critiquée", "critiqués", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is critique, spelled C-R-I-T-I-Q-U-E.
Definition
- 1Qui annonce une crise, qui a rapport à la crise.
- 2Qui doit amener un changement en bien ou en mal.
- 3De nature analytique, propre à juger quelque chose. Qui a pour objet de distinguer dans un ouvrage d’esprit, une production d’art, etc., ce qui ne répond pas aux idées que l’on se fait du beau, à ce que l’on juge la vérité, etc.
- 4Essentiel, déterminant.
- 5Qui appartient à, qui a rapport à un point critique d’un diagramme de phase, où deux phases en équilibre deviennent indistinctes.
- 6Qui a rapport au point critique de l’équilibre liquide - gaz, au delà duquel ces deux états se confondent.
- 7Se dit d’un milieu où s’entretient une réaction de fission en chaîne au cours de laquelle apparaissent autant de neutrons qu’il en disparaît.
- 8Se dit d'une caractéristique géométrique ou d'un nombre de Reynolds qui peut déclencher une certaine crise (comme la crise de traînée, par exemple).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccritique,cirtique,criitque,critiqeu,critiqque,critiuqe,critqiue,crittique,crritique,crtiique,rcitique
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of critique - 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 “critique”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is C-R-I-T-I-Q-U-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \kʁi.tik\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “critiquer” - see the side-by-side comparison. critique vs critiquer
- 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.