enfer
\ɑ̃.fɛʁ\
The verdict
“enfer” is a regularly-used French word, ranked #2,775 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #2,775
- frequency rank, French
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Séjour des morts, avant le christianisme.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | enfer |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ɑ̃.fɛʁ\ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #2,775 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “enfer” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for enfer is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ɑ̃.fɛʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #2,775 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for enfer, with forms such as "efner", "enefr", and "enferr". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "EnR", "ever", "enfin", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is enfer, spelled E-N-F-E-R.
Definition
- 1Séjour des morts, avant le christianisme.
- 2Lieux souterrains où les Grecs et les Romains croyaient que les âmes allaient après la mort.
- 3Lieu destiné au supplice des damnés.
- 4Lieu où l’on souffre, où l’on est au supplice, où l’on est extrêmement gêné, tourmenté, où il y a beaucoup de confusion et de désordre.
- 5Démons ; puissances de l’enfer.
- 6Partie réservée d’une bibliothèque où sont conservés les ouvrages dont la communication est jugée dangereuse, considérés comme licencieux ou « contraires aux bonnes mœurs ». Créé au début du XIXᵉ siècle, il s’agissait au départ d’une simple pièce dans laquelle on enfermait ou cadenassait toutes les œuvres (livres, médailles, etc.) ou objets le plus souvent à caractère érotique et qui étaient interdits au grand public, mais accessible uniquement sur recommandation.
- 7Citerne où se recueillent les eaux mêlées au marc d’olive dans les huileries. On en tire une huile de basse qualité dite « huile d’enfer ».
- 8Phare situé en mer (où la vie est rude).
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: efner,enefr,enferr,enffer,enfre,ennfer,nefer
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of enfer - 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.
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
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Using “enfer”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is E-N-F-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ɑ̃.fɛʁ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “EnR” - see the side-by-side comparison. enfer vs EnR
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.