desire

\dɪ.ˈzaɪ.əʳ\

/\dɪ.ˈzaɪ.əʳ\/ noun

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

The verdict

“desire” has 8 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #28,129. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#28,129
frequency rank, French
5,307
“D” headwords
8
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Désir (1, 2, 3), souhait, volonté.

Corpus desk

Index FR-desire · desire · French

desire · rank #28,129 · 8 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #28,129
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 8 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,307
  • PHOTO-FINISH Dietrich

Nearest frequency peer: Dietrich (+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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « desire »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « desire » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

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

desire vs dire
67% similar
desire vs dévie
50% similar
desire vs désolé
33% similar

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

Key facts for desire
PropertyValue
Headworddesire
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\dɪ.ˈzaɪ.əʳ\
Letters6
Frequency rank#28,129
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « desire »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).desirese place ici:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « Dietrich » (#28,130), « decision » (#28,127), « doctorants » (#28,133). Parmi 5,307 lemmes en « D », « desire » est au #28,129. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 8 spelling variants around desire (IPA \dɪ.ˈzaɪ.əʳ\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #28,129 among 5,307 “D” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for desire, with forms such as "ddesire", "deisre", and "desier". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "dire", "dévie", "désolé", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, 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 desire, spelled D-E-S-I-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Désir (1, 2, 3), souhait, volonté.
  2. 2
    Envie.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how desire appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. I have a desire for a new book.

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ddesire
  • deisre
  • desier
  • desirre
  • desrie
  • dessire
  • dseire
  • edsire

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

ddesire1deisre2desier2desirre1desrie2dessire1dseire2edsire2
Edit distance from "desire"

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 "desire"?
"desire" is spelled D-E-S-I-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \dɪ.ˈzaɪ.əʳ\.
What does "desire" mean?
As a noun, "desire" means: Désir (1, 2, 3), souhait, volonté.
What words are commonly confused with "desire"?
"desire" is commonly confused with "dire", "dévie", "désolé". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "desire"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "desire" is \dɪ.ˈzaɪ.əʳ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "desire" come from?
"desire" 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 "desire", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Cyrano#28,124durcir#28,135dénuée#28,144exiler#28,165

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).

carrosse8 variantsfinaux8 variantsgazeux8 variantsgérez8 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list