dédain

\de.dɛ̃\

/\de.dɛ̃\/ noun

The verdict

“dédain” has 9 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #27,783. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#27,783
frequency rank, French
5,307
“D” headwords
9
tracked misspellings
19
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Mépris exprimé par l’air, le ton ou le maintien.

Corpus desk

Index FR-dedain · dédain · French

dédain · rank #27,783 · 9 variants · 19 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #27,783
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 19 pairs
  • VAR-MID 9 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,307
  • PHOTO-FINISH déclinaisons

Nearest frequency peer: déclinaisons (-1 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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « dédain »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « dédain » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

dédain vs délai
67% similar
dédain vs devin
50% similar
dédain vs dédie
67% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for dédain
PropertyValue
Headworddédain
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\de.dɛ̃\
Letters6
Frequency rank#27,783
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs19
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « dédain »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).dédainse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « déclinaisons » (#27,782), « défendus » (#27,784), « débloque » (#27,781). Parmi 5,307 lemmes en « D », « dédain » est au #27,783. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 9 spelling variants around dédain (IPA \de.dɛ̃\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #27,783 among 5,307 “D” headwords. Dominant gloss: "Mépris exprimé par l’air, le ton ou le maintien.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for dédain, with forms such as "ddéain", "ddédain", and "dedain". 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 19 confusable-pair relationships, "délai", "devin", "dédie", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is dédain, spelled D-É-D-A-I-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    Mépris exprimé par l’air, le ton ou le maintien.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how dédain appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Le dédain profond que Modeste conçut alors de tous les hommes ordinaires imprima bientôt à sa figure je ne sais quoi de fier, de sauvage qui tempéra sa naïveté germanique, […].
  2. Entre la gueule du pot et celle d’un licheur, il y a la place d’une vipère, et tu m’y trouveras !… dit-elle excitée par le dédain de Nucingen.

Synonyms

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ddéain
  • ddédain
  • dedain
  • déadin
  • dédainn
  • dédani
  • déddain
  • dédian
  • éddain

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of dédain - 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.

ddéain2ddédain1dedain1déadin2dédainn1dédani2déddain1dédian2
Edit distance from "dédain"

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 "dédain"?
"dédain" is spelled D-É-D-A-I-N. The IPA pronunciation is \de.dɛ̃\.
What does "dédain" mean?
As a noun, "dédain" means: Mépris exprimé par l’air, le ton ou le maintien.
What words are commonly confused with "dédain"?
"dédain" is commonly confused with "délai", "devin", "dédie". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "dédain"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "dédain" is \de.dɛ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "dédain" come from?
"dédain" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "dédain", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list