douteux

\du.tø\

/\du.tø\/ adj

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

The verdict

“douteux” has 9 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #9,641. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#9,641
frequency rank, French
5,307
“D” headwords
9
tracked misspellings
9
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui est l'objet d'un doute, faute d'éléments suffisants d'information.

Corpus desk

Index FR-douteux · douteux · French

douteux · rank #9,641 · 9 variants · 9 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #9,641
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 9 pairs
  • VAR-MID 9 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,307
  • PHOTO-FINISH dick

Nearest frequency peer: dick (-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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « douteux »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « douteux » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

douteux vs doutez
71% similar
douteux vs doute
71% similar
douteux vs doutes
71% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for douteux
PropertyValue
Headworddouteux
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\du.tø\
Letters7
Frequency rank#9,641
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs9
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « douteux »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).douteuxse place ici:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « dick » (#9,640), « draps » (#9,642), « den » (#9,639). Parmi 5,307 lemmes en « D », « douteux » est au #9,641. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 9 spelling variants around douteux (IPA \du.tø\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #9,641 among 5,307 “D” headwords. Wiktionary lists 7 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for douteux, with forms such as "ddouteux", "dotueux", and "douetux". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 9 confusable-pair relationships, "doutez", "doute", "doutes", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is douteux, spelled D-O-U-T-E-U-X.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui est l'objet d'un doute, faute d'éléments suffisants d'information.
  2. 2
    Qualifie les personnes sur qui l’on ne peut pas trop compter, dont on n’est pas sûr.
  3. 3
    Qui est équivoque, ambigu, qui provoque le doute.
  4. 4
    Qualifie un jour faible, le degré de lumière qui forme le passage du jour à la nuit ou de la nuit au jour.
  5. 5
    Qui est longue ou brève dans le vers, suivant la place qu’elle y occupe.
  6. 6
    Moralement mauvais.
  7. 7
    Qui n'est pas conforme au bon goût ou à la bienséance.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. La validité des faits et des arguments rapportés dans de nombreux sites Web « amateurs » se révèle souvent douteuse ou carrément nulle.
  2. Un succès douteux. — Une affaire douteuse. — Son droit est fort douteux.

Synonyms

incertaindiscutablecontestabledubitabledoutableimprobable

Antonyms

assurécertainindubitable

This word in other languages

doubtful(English)dudoso(Español)zweifelhaft(Deutsch)incerto(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ddouteux
  • dotueux
  • douetux
  • douteuxx
  • doutexu
  • doutteux
  • doutuex
  • duoteux
  • oduteux

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of douteux - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

ddouteux1dotueux2douetux2douteuxx1doutexu2doutteux1doutuex2duoteux2
Edit distance from "douteux"

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 "douteux"?
"douteux" is spelled D-O-U-T-E-U-X. The IPA pronunciation is \du.tø\.
What does "douteux" mean?
As an adjective, "douteux" means: Qui est l'objet d'un doute, faute d'éléments suffisants d'information.
What words are commonly confused with "douteux"?
"douteux" is commonly confused with "doutez", "doute", "doutes". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "douteux"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "douteux" is \du.tø\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "douteux" come from?
"douteux" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "douteux", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

débuter#9,644décrite#9,645cuisses#9,636coupure#9,632

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).

créées9 variantscourriel9 variantsdégagé9 variantsfrappes9 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list