derrière
\dɛ.ʁjɛʁ\
The verdict
“derrière” is in the everyday core of French, ranked #564 in French word frequency and used as an adverb.
- #564
- frequency rank, French
- 8
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 7
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - En arrière ou du côté opposé à la face.
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 | derrière |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | \dɛ.ʁjɛʁ\ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #564 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 7 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “derrière” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for derrière is 8 letters long, classified as an adverb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \dɛ.ʁjɛʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #564 in overall French word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "En arrière ou du côté opposé à la face.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for derrière, with forms such as "dderrière", "derirère", and "derière". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 7 confusable-pair relationships, "derrières", "dernier", "décrire", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is derrière, spelled D-E-R-R-I-È-R-E.
Definition
- 1En arrière ou du côté opposé à la face.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: dderrière,derirère,derière,derriere,derrirèe,derrièer,derrièrre,derrèire,drerière,edrrière
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of derrière - 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 "derrière"?
What does "derrière" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "derrière"?
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Using “derrière”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is D-E-R-R-I-È-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \dɛ.ʁjɛʁ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “derrières” - see the side-by-side comparison. derrière vs derrières
- 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.