détective
\de.tɛk.tiv\
The verdict
“détective” has 14 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #9,820. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #9,820
- frequency rank, French
- 5,307
- “D” headwords
- 14
- tracked misspellings
- 6
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Agent de police employé à un service de recherches, dans les pays de langue anglaise.
Corpus desk
Index FR-detective · détective · French
détective · rank #9,820 · 14 variants · 6 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #9,820
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 6 pairs
- VAR-HIGH 14 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,307
- PHOTO-FINISH délits
Nearest frequency peer: délits (-2 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 « détective »
Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin
- durent
durent
90,185 corpus weight
- dus
dus
90,184 corpus weight
- délits
délits
90,183 corpus weight
- détective
détective
90,181 corpus weight
- Eiffel
Eiffel
90,179 corpus weight
- embarquer
embarquer
90,178 corpus weight
What this shows « détective » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.
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 | détective |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \de.tɛk.tiv\ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #9,820 |
| Misspellings tracked | 14 |
| Confusable pairs | 6 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « détective »
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 14 spelling variants around détective (IPA \de.tɛk.tiv\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #9,820 among 5,307 “D” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 14 likely wrong-spelling variants for détective, with forms such as "ddétective", "detective", and "dtéective". 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, "directive", "détectives", "détecte", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is détective, spelled D-É-T-E-C-T-I-V-E.
Definition
- 1Agent de police employé à un service de recherches, dans les pays de langue anglaise.
- 2Personne qui effectue des recherches et enquêtes de type policier à titre privé.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how détective appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
L’action se déroule à Istanbul et met en scène un détective de la police (Osman Sabri) et son assistant expert en déguisements, Necmi. Les deux héros tentent de résoudre un crime commis dans la capitale, […].
— De son côté, Richmond avait enfin été promu sergent détective et Susan Gay était montée d’un étage pour devenir leur nouvelle adjointe.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ddétective
- detective
- dtéective
- déetctive
- détcetive
- détecctive
- détecitve
- détectiev
- détectivve
- détecttive
- détectvie
- détetcive
- déttective
- édtective
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of détective - 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 "détective"?
What does "détective" mean?
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "détective", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (14 here; floor ≥5).