dilater

\di.la.te\

/\di.la.te\/ verb

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

The verdict

“dilater” is uncommon French (frequency #57,871 among 5,307 “D” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#57,871
frequency rank, French
5,307
“D” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Rendre plus large, plus ample.

Corpus desk

Index FR-dilater · dilater · French

dilater · rank #57,871 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #57,871
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,307
  • PHOTO-FINISH Diaby

Nearest frequency peer: Diaby (-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 « dilater »

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 « dilater » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for dilater
PropertyValue
Headworddilater
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\di.la.te\
Letters7
Frequency rank#57,871
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « dilater » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.dilatertombe 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: « Diaby » (#57,870), « dimensionnement » (#57,872), « disante » (#57,873). Parmi 5,307 lemmes en « D », « dilater » est au #57,871. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

dilater is uncommon French at frequency #57,871 among 5,307 “D” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \di.la.te\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 5 senses are on record.

dilater doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is dilater, spelled D-I-L-A-T-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Rendre plus large, plus ample.
  2. 2
    Augmenter le volume d’un corps et lui faire occuper plus d’espace, en écartant ses particules matérielles, sans les désagréger.
  3. 3
    Élargir.
  4. 4
    Arnaquer, sur le modèle d’enculer dans ce sens, souvent au passif.
  5. 5
    Épanouir.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Dilater un ballon.
  2. Dilater le canal de l’urètre.

This word in other languages

dilate(English)

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 "dilater"?
"dilater" is spelled D-I-L-A-T-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is \di.la.te\.
What does "dilater" mean?
As a verb, "dilater" means: Rendre plus large, plus ample.
How do you pronounce "dilater"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "dilater" is \di.la.te\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "dilater" come from?
"dilater" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 "dilater", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

disante#57,873distrib#57,876diverge#57,877doudous#57,878

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list