département

\de.paʁ.tə.mɑ̃\

/\de.paʁ.tə.mɑ̃\/ noun

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

The verdict

“département” is a regularly-used French word, ranked #1,136 in French word frequency and used as a noun.

#1,136
frequency rank, French
11
letters
18
tracked misspellings
6
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Chacune des parties des affaires d’État, distribuées entre les ministres et dont la connaissance leur est attribuée.

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

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

département vs department
82% similar
département vs dépassement
82% similar
département vs désarmement
82% similar

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

Key facts for département
PropertyValue
Headworddépartement
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\de.paʁ.tə.mɑ̃\
Letters11
Frequency rank#1,136
Misspellings tracked18
Confusable pairs6
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “département” sits in French frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). département lands here:

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

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for département is 11 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \de.paʁ.tə.mɑ̃\. Corpus data places it at rank #1,136 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our generated misspelling index lists 18 likely wrong-spelling variants for département, with forms such as "ddépartement", "departement", and "dpéartement". 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 6 confusable-pair relationships, "department", "dépassement", "désarmement", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is département, spelled D-É-P-A-R-T-E-M-E-N-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Chacune des parties des affaires d’État, distribuées entre les ministres et dont la connaissance leur est attribuée.
  2. 2
    Principale division administrative du territoire français. La France compte cent départements dont quatre départements d’outre-mer.
  3. 3
    L’administration qui dirige ce territoire.
  4. 4
    L’ensemble des habitants de ce territoire.
  5. 5
    Province, par opposition à la capitale.
  6. 6
    Unité dans le schéma d’organisation hiérarchique à l’intérieur d’une entreprise.

This word in other languages

department(English)departamento(Español)Ministerium(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: ddépartement,departement,dpéartement,déaprtement,déparetment,déparrtement,départeemnt,départemennt,départementt,départemetn,départemment,départemnet,départmeent,départtement,dépatrement,déppartement,dépratement,édpartement

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

ddépartement1departement1dpéartement2déaprtement2déparetment2déparrtement1départeemnt2départemennt1
Edit distance from "département"

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 "département"?
"département" is spelled D-É-P-A-R-T-E-M-E-N-T. The IPA pronunciation is \de.paʁ.tə.mɑ̃\.
What does "département" mean?
As a noun, "département" means: Chacune des parties des affaires d’État, distribuées entre les ministres et dont la connaissance leur est attribuée.
What words are commonly confused with "département"?
"département" is commonly confused with "department", "dépassement", "désarmement". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "département"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "département" is \de.paʁ.tə.mɑ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "département" come from?
"département" 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.

Using “département”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct French spelling is D-É-P-A-R-T-E-M-E-N-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as \de.paʁ.tə.mɑ̃\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • Don't mix it up with “department” - see the side-by-side comparison. département vs department
  • 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list