drift

/\dʁift\/ noun

Letters

5 characters

Frequency Rank

#42,295

in French word usage

Misspellings

8

tracked variants

Confusables

12

similar word pairs

drift is aFrenchnoun. It means: Terrain glaciaire. Pronounced \dʁift\. Often confused with droit and drive.

Key facts for drift
PropertyValue
Headworddrift
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\dʁift\
Letters5
Frequency rank#42,295
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs12
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of drift in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for drift is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \dʁift\. Corpus data places it at rank #42,295 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 8 documented wrong-spelling variants for drift, with forms such as "ddrift", "dirft", and "drfit". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 12 confusable-pair relationships, "droit", "drive", "drink", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is drift, spelled D-R-I-F-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Terrain glaciaire.
  2. 2
    Dérapage contrôlé.

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: ddrift,dirft,drfit,drifft,driftt,dritf,drrift,rdift

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for drift

Misspelling Variants of "drift"

ddrift6dirft5drfit5drifft6driftt6dritf5drrift6rdift5
Misspelling Variants of "drift"

Frequency rank: #42,295 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "drift"?
"drift" is spelled D-R-I-F-T. The IPA pronunciation is \dʁift\.
What does "drift" mean?
As a noun, "drift" means: Terrain glaciaire.
What words are commonly confused with "drift"?
"drift" is commonly confused with "droit", "drive", "drink". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "drift"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "drift" is \dʁift\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "drift" come from?
"drift" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter D in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.