doctrinaire
\dɔk.tʁi.nɛʁ\
The verdict
“doctrinaire” is uncommon French (frequency #96,827 among 404,891 “D” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #96,827
- frequency rank, French
- 404,891
- “D” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | doctrinaire |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \dɔk.tʁi.nɛʁ\ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #96,827 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “doctrinaire” sits in French frequency
Rare enough to double-check
doctrinaire is uncommon French at frequency #96,827 among 404,891 “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
- 1Un 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.
- 2Celui ou celle qui se fait remarquer par un attachement systématique à ses opinions et l’affirmation autoritaire de celles-ci.
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
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Using “doctrinaire”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is D-O-C-T-R-I-N-A-I-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \dɔk.tʁi.nɛʁ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Other uncommon French words near this rank
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.