doctrinaire

\dɔk.tʁi.nɛʁ\

/\dɔk.tʁi.nɛʁ\/ noun

The verdict

“doctrinaire” is uncommon French (frequency #96,827 among 5,307 “D” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#96,827
frequency rank, French
5,307
“D” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Un des hommes d’opinion modérée, qui, dans la première moitié du XIXᵉ siècle, se piquaient de subordonner leurs principes politiques à un ensemble de doctrines rigoureuses.

Corpus desk

Index FR-doctrinaire · doctrinaire · French

doctrinaire · rank #96,827 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #96,827
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,307
  • PHOTO-FINISH doa

Nearest frequency peer: doa (-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 « doctrinaire »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for doctrinaire
PropertyValue
Headworddoctrinaire
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\dɔk.tʁi.nɛʁ\
Letters11
Frequency rank#96,827
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « doctrinaire » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).doctrinairetombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « doa » (#96,826), « Doms » (#96,828), « divisaient » (#96,825). Parmi 5,307 lemmes en « D », « doctrinaire » est au #96,827. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

doctrinaire is uncommon French at frequency #96,827 among 5,307 “D” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \dɔk.tʁi.nɛʁ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for doctrinaire, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

No documented word history exists for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is doctrinaire, spelled D-O-C-T-R-I-N-A-I-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Un des hommes d’opinion modérée, qui, dans la première moitié du XIXᵉ siècle, se piquaient de subordonner leurs principes politiques à un ensemble de doctrines rigoureuses.
  2. 2
    Celui ou celle qui se fait remarquer par un attachement systématique à ses opinions et l’affirmation autoritaire de celles-ci.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. — Tu as tort de te rajeunir, lui disait son père. Si tu avais trente-six ans, ou du moins la mine revêche d’un doctrinaire, je pourrais te donner la position que je voudrais.
  2. Il était chaussé de bottes à éperons, vêtu d’un pantalon gris, d’une redingote foncée ; le col de la chemise émergeait, très blanc, de la haute cravate noire à la doctrinaire.

This word in other languages

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 "doctrinaire"?
"doctrinaire" is spelled D-O-C-T-R-I-N-A-I-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \dɔk.tʁi.nɛʁ\.
What does "doctrinaire" mean?
As a noun, "doctrinaire" means: Un des hommes d’opinion modérée, qui, dans la première moitié du XIXᵉ siècle, se piquaient de subordonner leurs principes politiques à un ensemble de doctrines rigoureuses.
How do you pronounce "doctrinaire"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "doctrinaire" is \dɔk.tʁi.nɛʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "doctrinaire" come from?
"doctrinaire" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "doctrinaire", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list