descente

/\de.sɑ̃t\/ noun

Letters

8 characters

Frequency Rank

#4,662

in French word usage

Misspellings

12

tracked variants

Confusables

15

similar word pairs

descente is aFrenchnoun. It means: Action de descendre, d’aller vers le bas. Pronounced \de.sɑ̃t\. It ranks #4,662 in French word frequency. Often confused with détente and déserte.

Key facts for descente
PropertyValue
Headworddescente
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\de.sɑ̃t\
Letters8
Frequency rank#4,662
Misspellings tracked12
Confusable pairs15
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of descente in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for descente is 8 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \de.sɑ̃t\. Corpus data places it at rank #4,662 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 16 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 12 documented wrong-spelling variants for descente, with forms such as "ddescente", "decsente", and "desccente". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 15 confusable-pair relationships, "détente", "déserte", "désuète", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is descente, spelled D-E-S-C-E-N-T-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Action de descendre, d’aller vers le bas.
  2. 2
    Action par laquelle on descend quelque chose.
  3. 3
    Pente par laquelle on descend.
  4. 4
    Tuyau qui porte les eaux d’un chéneau ou d’une cuvette jusque sur le pavé ou par lequel descendent les eaux d’un réservoir.
  5. 5
    Discipline de course à ski.
  6. 6
    Discipline de course en canoë-kayak.
  7. 7
    Discipline de VTT.
  8. 8
    Mouvement de haut en bas de quelque chose.
  9. 9
    Hernie, ou autre incommodité, qui consiste dans le déplacement et la chute de quelque partie des intestins.
  10. 10
    Action de se déplacer temporairement d’un endroit à un autre, pour un séjour.
  11. 11
    Irruption des ennemis par mer ou par terre.
  12. 12
    Action de se transporter dans un lieu par autorité de justice, ou par action policière, pour en faire la visite, pour y procéder à une perquisition, etc.
  13. 13
    Soif, appétit démesuré.
  14. 14
    Fin de trip, retour à un état hors d’effet d’une drogue.
  15. 15
    Sorte de surprise-partie.
  16. 16
    Ouverture dans le pont d’un navire munie d’une échelle.

Synonyms

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: ddescente,decsente,desccente,descenet,descennte,descentte,descetne,descnete,desecnte,desscente,dsecente,edscente

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for descente

Misspelling Variants of "descente"

ddescente9decsente8desccente9descenet8descennte9descentte9descetne8descnete8
Misspelling Variants of "descente"

Frequency rank: #4,662 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "descente"?
"descente" is spelled D-E-S-C-E-N-T-E. The IPA pronunciation is \de.sɑ̃t\.
What does "descente" mean?
As a noun, "descente" means: Action de descendre, d’aller vers le bas.
What words are commonly confused with "descente"?
"descente" is commonly confused with "détente", "déserte", "désuète". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "descente"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "descente" is \de.sɑ̃t\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "descente" come from?
"descente" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter D in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.