deny

\dɪ.ˈnaɪ\

/\dɪ.ˈnaɪ\/ verb

The verdict

“deny” is uncommon French (frequency #79,212 among 5,307 “D” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#79,212
frequency rank, French
5,307
“D” headwords

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

Corpus desk

Index FR-deny · deny · French

deny · rank #79,212 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #79,212
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,307
  • PHOTO-FINISH dermatite

Nearest frequency peer: dermatite (+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 « deny »

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 « deny » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for deny
PropertyValue
Headworddeny
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\dɪ.ˈnaɪ\
Letters4
Frequency rank#79,212
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « deny » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.denytombe 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: « dermatite » (#79,213), « Dessalines » (#79,216), « daw » (#79,207). Parmi 5,307 lemmes en « D », « deny » est au #79,212. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

deny is uncommon French at frequency #79,212 among 5,307 “D” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \dɪ.ˈnaɪ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for deny, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is deny, spelled D-E-N-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    Nier, dénier.
  2. 2
    Démentir.

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 "deny"?
"deny" is spelled D-E-N-Y. The IPA pronunciation is \dɪ.ˈnaɪ\.
What does "deny" mean?
As a verb, "deny" means: Nier, dénier.
How do you pronounce "deny"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "deny" is \dɪ.ˈnaɪ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "deny" come from?
"deny" 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 "deny", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list