direction

/\di.ʁɛk.sjɔ̃\/ noun

Letters

9 characters

Frequency Rank

#565

in French word usage

Misspellings

13

tracked variants

Confusables

8

similar word pairs

direction is aFrenchnoun. It means: Action de diriger, de régler l’exécution d’une action, d'administrer un établissement ou de conduire une personne. Pronounced \di.ʁɛk.sjɔ̃\. It ranks #565 in French word frequency. Often confused with director and directive.

Key facts for direction
PropertyValue
Headworddirection
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\di.ʁɛk.sjɔ̃\
Letters9
Frequency rank#565
Misspellings tracked13
Confusable pairs8
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of direction in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for direction is 9 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \di.ʁɛk.sjɔ̃\. Corpus data places it at rank #565 in overall French word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 13 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 13 documented wrong-spelling variants for direction, with forms such as "ddirection", "dierction", and "dircetion". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 8 confusable-pair relationships, "director", "directive", "directions", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is direction, spelled D-I-R-E-C-T-I-O-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Action de diriger, de régler l’exécution d’une action, d'administrer un établissement ou de conduire une personne.
  2. 2
    Fonction, poste de directeur.
  3. 3
    Personne ou ensemble des personnes qui dirigent.
  4. 4
    Service placé sous l'autorité d’un directeur.
  5. 5
    Ensemble de bureaux où sont installés un directeur et ses collaborateurs.
  6. 6
    Étendue de la compétence d’un directeur, circonscription qui relève de son autorité.
  7. 7
    Côté vers lequel une personne ou une chose se dirige, est dirigée ou tournée ; voie suivie pour arriver à un point donné.
  8. 8
    Orientation donnée à une entreprise, à une action, une politique, etc. ; manière dont elle se développe.
  9. 9
    Droite suivant laquelle se déplace ou s’oriente un corps, s’exerce une force.
  10. 10
    Adopter une bonne, une mauvaise conduite.
  11. 11
    Ensemble des organes qui permettent d'orienter les roues directrices.
  12. 12
    Fonction de directeur de conscience, qui guide par ses conseils la vie spirituelle d’une personne.
  13. 13
    Propriété commune à des droites parallèles, ou à des objets portés par des droites parallèles tels que des segments ou des demi-droites, ou propriété d’un vecteur.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: ddirection,dierction,dircetion,direcction,direciton,directino,directionn,directoin,directtion,diretcion,dirrection,driection,idrection

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for direction

Misspelling Variants of "direction"

ddirection10dierction9dircetion9direcction10direciton9directino9directionn10directoin9
Misspelling Variants of "direction"

Frequency rank: #565 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "direction"?
"direction" is spelled D-I-R-E-C-T-I-O-N. The IPA pronunciation is \di.ʁɛk.sjɔ̃\.
What does "direction" mean?
As a noun, "direction" means: Action de diriger, de régler l’exécution d’une action, d'administrer un établissement ou de conduire une personne.
What words are commonly confused with "direction"?
"direction" is commonly confused with "director", "directive", "directions". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "direction"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "direction" is \di.ʁɛk.sjɔ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "direction" come from?
"direction" 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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter D in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.