default

adj

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“default” is uncommon French (frequency #53,259 among 5,307 “D” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#53,259
frequency rank, French
5,307
“D” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Par défaut.

Corpus desk

Index FR-default · default · French

default · rank #53,259 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #53,259
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,307
  • PHOTO-FINISH Delft

Nearest frequency peer: Delft (+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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « default »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « default » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for default
PropertyValue
Headworddefault
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
Letters7
Frequency rank#53,259
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « default » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.defaulttombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « Delft » (#53,260), « demandai » (#53,261), « datte » (#53,256). Parmi 5,307 lemmes en « D », « default » est au #53,259. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

default is uncommon French at frequency #53,259 among 5,307 “D” headwords, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Par défaut.".

No generated misspelling entries exist for default in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is default, spelled D-E-F-A-U-L-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Par défaut.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. default value

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 "default"?
"default" is spelled D-E-F-A-U-L-T.
What does "default" mean?
As an adjective, "default" means: Par défaut.
What language does "default" come from?
"default" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "default", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

cycling#53,250cubisme#53,244criques#53,239Coudray#53,233

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list