détonnant
\de.tɔ.nɑ̃\
The verdict
“détonnant” is uncommon French (frequency #77,462 among 404,891 “D” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #77,462
- frequency rank, French
- 404,891
- “D” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Participe présent de détonner.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | détonnant |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \de.tɔ.nɑ̃\ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #77,462 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “détonnant” sits in French frequency
Rare enough to double-check
détonnant is uncommon French at frequency #77,462 among 404,891 “D” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \de.tɔ.nɑ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Participe présent de détonner.".
détonnant doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is détonnant, spelled D-É-T-O-N-N-A-N-T.
Definition
- 1Participe présent de détonner.
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
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Using “détonnant”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is D-É-T-O-N-N-A-N-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \de.tɔ.nɑ̃\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Other uncommon French words near this rank
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.