empire

\ɑ̃.piʁ\

/\ɑ̃.piʁ\/ noun

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

The verdict

“empire” has 8 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #1,561. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#1,561
frequency rank, French
3,255
“E” headwords
8
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Groupe d’États qui sont dirigés par un État qui les domine.

Corpus desk

Index FR-empire · empire · French

empire · rank #1,561 · 8 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #1,561
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 8 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,255
  • PHOTO-FINISH découverte

Nearest frequency peer: découverte (-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 « empire »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « empire » 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).

empire vs épine
50% similar
empire vs épicé
33% similar
empire vs étire
50% similar

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

Key facts for empire
PropertyValue
Headwordempire
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ɑ̃.piʁ\
Letters6
Frequency rank#1,561
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « empire »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.empirese place ici:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « découverte » (#1,560), « entièrement » (#1,562), « dommage » (#1,559). Parmi 3,255 lemmes en « E », « empire » est au #1,561. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 8 spelling variants around empire (IPA \ɑ̃.piʁ\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #1,561 among 3,255 “E” headwords. Wiktionary lists 10 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for empire, with forms such as "emipre", "emmpire", and "empier". 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, "épine", "épicé", "étire", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is empire, spelled E-M-P-I-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Groupe d’États qui sont dirigés par un État qui les domine.
  2. 2
    Autorité politique dominant symboliquement, politiquement et/ou militairement plusieurs États ou nations.
  3. 3
    Autorité absolue.
  4. 4
    Ascendant, influence dominante.
  5. 5
    Autorité absolue d’un chef d’État qui porte le titre d’empereur.
  6. 6
    État, nations soumis à cette autorité.
  7. 7
    Période de temps qu’a régné un empereur.
  8. 8
    Règne de Napoléon Iᵉʳ ou celui de Napoléon III.
  9. 9
    Rang taxinomique supérieur au règne.
  10. 10
    Grande région zoogéographique, à l'échelle d'un continent.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Faites une France très forte, et nul n’osera jamais convoiter ses colonies. Laissez la France se débiliter davantage et son empire colonial, d’une manière ou d’une autre, s’écroulera.
  2. Pour le Chili du XIXᵉ siècle, qui faisait l’expérience d’un début d’industrialisation, l’ennemi et le partenaire principal était l’Empire britannique

This word in other languages

mastery(English)imperio(Español)Kaiserreich(Deutsch)império(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • emipre
  • emmpire
  • empier
  • empirre
  • emppire
  • emprie
  • epmire
  • mepire

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of empire - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

emipre2emmpire1empier2empirre1emppire1emprie2epmire2mepire2
Edit distance from "empire"

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 "empire"?
"empire" is spelled E-M-P-I-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ɑ̃.piʁ\.
What does "empire" mean?
As a noun, "empire" means: Groupe d’États qui sont dirigés par un État qui les domine.
What words are commonly confused with "empire"?
"empire" is commonly confused with "épine", "épicé", "étire". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "empire"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "empire" is \ɑ̃.piʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "empire" come from?
"empire" 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 "empire", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

espoir#1,563offrir#1,569triste#1,542allons#1,581

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).

dommage8 variantsbizarre8 variantsauront8 variantsquitter8 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list