dette
French, noun/dɛt/
dette is spelled D-E-T-T-E (5 letters) and appears 33 times per million words in written French, the 2,473rd most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Dette is a French feminine noun meaning “debt” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Somme due à un créancier”.
What does dette mean in English?
noun
- 1
femininedebt
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Somme due à un créancier. 2. Obligation sociale ou sentiment subjectif d’obligation de rendre quelque chose de la même valeur que celle qu’on a auparavant reçue.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of dette
- dettes plural
- debte alternative obsolete
- dête alternative obsolete
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce dette?
- /dɛt/
- \dɛt\
- [dɛt]
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to dette
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is dette in French?
dette appears 33 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).