department
The verdict
“department” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #30,975 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #30,975
- frequency rank, French
- 10
- letters
- 16
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Ministère (d’un gouvernement).
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 | department |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #30,975 |
| Misspellings tracked | 16 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “department” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for department is 10 letters long, classified as a noun. Corpus data places it at rank #30,975 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 16 likely wrong-spelling variants for department, with forms such as "ddepartment", "deaprtment", and "deparmtent". 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 2 confusable-pair relationships, "département", "départements", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is department, spelled D-E-P-A-R-T-M-E-N-T.
Definition
- 1Ministère (d’un gouvernement).
- 2Faculté (d’une université).
- 3Service (ou autre division) d’une société ou d’un organisme.’
- 4Rayon (d’un magasin).
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ddepartment,deaprtment,deparmtent,deparrtment,departemnt,departmennt,departmentt,departmetn,departmment,departmnet,departtment,depatrment,deppartment,depratment,dpeartment,edpartment
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of department - 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.
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 "department"?
What does "department" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "department"?
What language does "department" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “department”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is D-E-P-A-R-T-M-E-N-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “département” - see the side-by-side comparison. department vs département
- 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.