drive-in

\dʁaj.vin\

/\dʁaj.vin\/ noun

The verdict

“drive-in” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
8
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Ciné-parc, pratique américaine.

Corpus desk

Index FR-drive-in · drive-in · French

drive-in · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "D" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for drive-in
PropertyValue
Headworddrive-in
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\dʁaj.vin\
Letters8
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « drive-in » en français

drive-inreste hors des 100.000 mots français les plus fréquents, dans la longue queue du vocabulaire technique, archaïque ou rare, là où le doute d'orthographe frappe.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

drive-in is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \dʁaj.vin\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

No generated misspelling entries exist for drive-in in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

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 drive-in, spelled D-R-I-V-E---I-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    Ciné-parc, pratique américaine.
  2. 2
    Lieu d'un établissement où le conducteur d'un véhicule motorisé à l'arrêt peut échanger avec un guichetier et éventuellement où l'on peut rentrer avec sa voiture

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. J’avais l’impression de me trouver dans un drive-in, avec, devant mon pare-brise à la place de l’écran géant, l’immeuble carré en briques rouges dont les vitres opaques étaient illuminées de l’intérieur.
  2. L'essor des drive in, qui fut grand après 1948 semble désormais stoppé et ce genre de cinémas est depuis deux ou trois ans en régression.

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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "drive-in"?
"drive-in" is spelled D-R-I-V-E---I-N. The IPA pronunciation is \dʁaj.vin\.
What does "drive-in" mean?
As a noun, "drive-in" means: Ciné-parc, pratique américaine.
How do you pronounce "drive-in"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "drive-in" is \dʁaj.vin\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "drive-in" come from?
"drive-in" 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list