en vain
\ɑ̃ vɛ̃\
The verdict
“en vain” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 7
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Vainement.
Corpus desk
Index FR-en-vain · en vain · French
en vain · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "E" 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | en vain |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | \ɑ̃ vɛ̃\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « en vain » en français
Rare enough to double-check
en vain is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anadverb, transcribed \ɑ̃ vɛ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Vainement.".
en vain has no tracked misspelling variants, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is en vain, spelled E-N- -V-A-I-N.
Definition
- 1Vainement.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how en vain appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
En vain, j’avais cherché un ru, dont l’eau fraîche chante sous les feuilles, ou bien une source, comme il s’en trouve pourtant beaucoup dans le pays.
Il cracha une injure, s’élança et réempoigna la jeune femme qui, cette fois, se débattit en vain.
Synonyms
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.