down

\dɔn\

/\dɔn\/ adj

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

The verdict

“down” has 6 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #8,531. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#8,531
frequency rank, French
5,307
“D” headwords
6
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Dépressif, déprimé.

Corpus desk

Index FR-down · down · French

down · rank #8,531 · 6 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #8,531
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 6 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,307
  • PHOTO-FINISH dir

Nearest frequency peer: dir (-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 « down »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « down » 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).

down vs dun
50% similar
down vs doxa
50% similar
down vs doyen
60% similar

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

Key facts for down
PropertyValue
Headworddown
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\dɔn\
Letters4
Frequency rank#8,531
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « down »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).downse place ici:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « dir » (#8,530), « dues » (#8,532), « Dylan » (#8,533). Parmi 5,307 lemmes en « D », « down » est au #8,531. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 6 spelling variants around down (IPA \dɔn\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #8,531 among 5,307 “D” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for down, with forms such as "ddown", "donw", and "downn". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "dun", "doxa", "doyen", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is down, spelled D-O-W-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    Dépressif, déprimé.
  2. 2
    Partant.
  3. 3
    Mise hors de combat, knock-down.
  4. 4
    En panne, hors service, défaillant.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Je suis vraiment down depuis que tu es parti.
  2. T'es down pour aller au cinéma ?

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ddown
  • donw
  • downn
  • dowwn
  • dwon
  • odwn

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of down - 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.

ddown1donw2downn1dowwn1dwon2odwn2
Edit distance from "down"

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 "down"?
"down" is spelled D-O-W-N. The IPA pronunciation is \dɔn\.
What does "down" mean?
As an adjective, "down" means: Dépressif, déprimé.
What words are commonly confused with "down"?
"down" is commonly confused with "dun", "doxa", "doyen". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "down"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "down" is \dɔn\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "down" come from?
"down" 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 "down", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

dues#8,532fast#8,544CNRS#8,517bang#8,501

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).

Barry6 variantsabout6 variantsolive6 variantspaulo6 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list