décontaminer
\de.kɔ̃.ta.mi.ne\
The verdict
“décontaminer” is uncommon French (frequency #85,661 among 5,307 “D” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #85,661
- frequency rank, French
- 5,307
- “D” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Rendre sûr, pur, inoffensif un objet, un lieu, qui a été contaminé.
Corpus desk
Index FR-decontaminer · décontaminer · French
décontaminer · rank #85,661 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #85,661
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,307
- PHOTO-FINISH dédouble
Nearest frequency peer: dédouble (+2 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 « décontaminer »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- déca
déca
14,344 corpus weight
- décapsuleur
décapsuleur
14,343 corpus weight
- décontaminer
décontaminer
14,340 corpus weight
- dédouble
dédouble
14,338 corpus weight
- dédoublemen…
dédoublements
14,337 corpus weight
- défiait
défiait
14,336 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « décontaminer » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | décontaminer |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \de.kɔ̃.ta.mi.ne\ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Frequency rank | #85,661 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « décontaminer » en français
Rare enough to double-check
décontaminer is uncommon French at frequency #85,661 among 5,307 “D” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \de.kɔ̃.ta.mi.ne\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Rendre sûr, pur, inoffensif un objet, un lieu, qui a été contaminé.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for décontaminer, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is décontaminer, spelled D-É-C-O-N-T-A-M-I-N-E-R.
Definition
- 1Rendre sûr, pur, inoffensif un objet, un lieu, qui a été contaminé.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how décontaminer appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Une fois que les eaux souterraines sont polluées, il est difficile et coûteux de les décontaminer.
Cependant, à cette liste des lieux à décontaminer, il n’est fait aucune mention de la décontamination des végétaux et des animaux.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
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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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "décontaminer", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 12 letters (nearest by frequency rank).