découvrir
\de.ku.vʁiʁ\
The verdict
“découvrir” is a regularly-used French word, ranked #1,328 in French word frequency and used as a verb.
- #1,328
- frequency rank, French
- 9
- letters
- 14
- tracked misspellings
- 9
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Dégarnir de ce qui couvrait.
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 | découvrir |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \de.ku.vʁiʁ\ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #1,328 |
| Misspellings tracked | 14 |
| Confusable pairs | 9 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “découvrir” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for découvrir is 9 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \de.ku.vʁiʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #1,328 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 13 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 14 likely wrong-spelling variants for découvrir, with forms such as "dcéouvrir", "ddécouvrir", and "decouvrir". 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 9 confusable-pair relationships, "découvrit", "découvrira", "découvrirez", 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 its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is découvrir, spelled D-É-C-O-U-V-R-I-R.
Definition
- 1Dégarnir de ce qui couvrait.
- 2Se retirer, en parlant de la mer.
- 3Laisser voir ou laisser trop voir.
- 4Dégarnir de ce qui mettait à couvert.
- 5Révéler, déclarer, faire connaître ce qu’on tenait ou ce qui était tenu caché, secret.
- 6Voir, apercevoir d’un lieu élevé.
- 7Commencer d’apercevoir, de connaître ; apprendre l’existence de quelque chose ou quelqu’un ; voir pour la première fois.
- 8Trouver ce qui n’était pas connu, ce qui était resté ignoré ou caché.
- 9Parvenir à connaître ce qui était tenu caché.
- 10Ôter son chapeau, en parlant des hommes.
- 11Donner prise à son adversaire, ne pas se mettre bien en garde.
- 12S’exposer aux coups, au danger.
- 13Parvenir à connaître ce qui était tenu caché.
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: dcéouvrir,ddécouvrir,decouvrir,déccouvrir,décourvir,découvirr,découvrirr,découvrri,découvrrir,découvvrir,décovurir,décuovrir,déocuvrir,édcouvrir
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of découvrir - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "découvrir"?
What does "découvrir" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "découvrir"?
How do you pronounce "découvrir"?
What language does "découvrir" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “découvrir”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is D-É-C-O-U-V-R-I-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \de.ku.vʁiʁ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “découvrit” - see the side-by-side comparison. découvrir vs découvrit
- 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.