détergent

\de.tɛʁ.ʒɑ̃\

/\de.tɛʁ.ʒɑ̃\/ adj

The verdict

“détergent” is uncommon French (frequency #51,428 among 5,307 “D” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#51,428
frequency rank, French
5,307
“D” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui possède des propriétés nettoyantes vis-à-vis d’une surface solide souillée.

Corpus desk

Index FR-detergent · détergent · French

détergent · rank #51,428 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #51,428
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,307
  • PHOTO-FINISH détériorée

Nearest frequency peer: détériorée (+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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « détergent »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « détergent » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for détergent
PropertyValue
Headworddétergent
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\de.tɛʁ.ʒɑ̃\
Letters9
Frequency rank#51,428
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « détergent » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).détergenttombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « détériorée » (#51,429), « défaitiste » (#51,426), « dévalorisation » (#51,430). Parmi 5,307 lemmes en « D », « détergent » est au #51,428. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

détergent is uncommon French at frequency #51,428 among 5,307 “D” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \de.tɛʁ.ʒɑ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

détergent doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is détergent, spelled D-É-T-E-R-G-E-N-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui possède des propriétés nettoyantes vis-à-vis d’une surface solide souillée.
  2. 2
    Qui déterge.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Huile détergente.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

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 "détergent"?
"détergent" is spelled D-É-T-E-R-G-E-N-T. The IPA pronunciation is \de.tɛʁ.ʒɑ̃\.
What does "détergent" mean?
As an adjective, "détergent" means: Qui possède des propriétés nettoyantes vis-à-vis d’une surface solide souillée.
How do you pronounce "détergent"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "détergent" is \de.tɛʁ.ʒɑ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "détergent" come from?
"détergent" 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 "détergent", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list