distant
\dis.tɑ̃\
The verdict
“distant” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #15,852 in French word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #15,852
- frequency rank, French
- 7
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 17
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Qui est séparé par un intervalle plus ou moins grand.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | distant |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \dis.tɑ̃\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #15,852 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 17 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “distant” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for distant is 7 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \dis.tɑ̃\. Corpus data places it at rank #15,852 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for distant, with forms such as "ddistant", "disatnt", and "disstant". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 17 confusable-pair relationships, "dotant", "doutant", "distinct", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is distant, spelled D-I-S-T-A-N-T.
Definition
- 1Qui est séparé par un intervalle plus ou moins grand.
- 2Qui est situé à un autre emplacement géographique, dont l’accès nécessite un passage par le réseau ajoutant de la latence.
- 3Qui tient les gens à distance ; qui repousse la familiarité.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ddistant,disatnt,disstant,distannt,distantt,distatn,distnat,disttant,ditsant,dsitant,idstant
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of distant - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 “distant”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is D-I-S-T-A-N-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \dis.tɑ̃\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “dotant” - see the side-by-side comparison. distant vs dotant
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
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.