entretenait

\ɑ̃.tʁə.tə.nɛ\

/\ɑ̃.tʁə.tə.nɛ\/ verb

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

The verdict

“entretenait” has 16 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #28,940. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#28,940
frequency rank, French
3,255
“E” headwords
16
tracked misspellings
2
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de entretenir.

Corpus desk

Index FR-entretenait · entretenait · French

entretenait · rank #28,940 · 16 variants · 2 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #28,940
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 2 pairs
  • VAR-HIGH 16 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,255
  • PHOTO-FINISH entourées

Nearest frequency peer: entourées (-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 « entretenait »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « entretenait » 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).

entretenait vs entretenir
82% similar
entretenait vs entretenant
91% similar

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

Key facts for entretenait
PropertyValue
Headwordentretenait
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\ɑ̃.tʁə.tə.nɛ\
Letters11
Frequency rank#28,940
Misspellings tracked16
Confusable pairs2
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « entretenait »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).entretenaitse place ici:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « entourées » (#28,939), « environnants » (#28,941), « entendement » (#28,938). Parmi 3,255 lemmes en « E », « entretenait » est au #28,940. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 16 spelling variants around entretenait (IPA \ɑ̃.tʁə.tə.nɛ\), averb. Corpus frequency is #28,940 among 3,255 “E” headwords. Dominant gloss: "Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de entretenir.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 16 likely wrong-spelling variants for entretenait, with forms such as "enntretenait", "enrtetenait", and "entertenait". 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 2 confusable-pair relationships, "entretenir", "entretenant", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is entretenait, spelled E-N-T-R-E-T-E-N-A-I-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de entretenir.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Une récente dépêche du maréchal Ney faisait craindre que les Anglais ne débarquassent prochainement sur la côte, et signalait le marquis comme un homme qui entretenait des intelligences avec le cabinet de Londres.
  2. Firmaine, en dépit de la situation étrange dans laquelle elle se trouvait, en dépit du curieux tête-à-tête et du caractère énigmatique du personnage avec lequel elle s’entretenait, s’était subitement replongée dans ses souvenirs.

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • enntretenait
  • enrtetenait
  • entertenait
  • entreetnait
  • entreteanit
  • entretenaitt
  • entretenati
  • entreteniat
  • entretennait
  • entretneait
  • entrettenait
  • entrretenait
  • entrteenait
  • enttretenait
  • etnretenait
  • netretenait

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of entretenait - 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.

enntretenait1enrtetenait2entertenait2entreetnait2entreteanit2entretenaitt1entretenati2entreteniat2
Edit distance from "entretenait"

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 "entretenait"?
"entretenait" is spelled E-N-T-R-E-T-E-N-A-I-T. The IPA pronunciation is \ɑ̃.tʁə.tə.nɛ\.
What does "entretenait" mean?
As a verb, "entretenait" means: Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de entretenir.
What words are commonly confused with "entretenait"?
"entretenait" is commonly confused with "entretenir", "entretenant". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "entretenait"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "entretenait" is \ɑ̃.tʁə.tə.nɛ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "entretenait" come from?
"entretenait" 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 "entretenait", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

entendement#28,938exportateur#28,945emprisonnée#28,933déconnecter#28,923

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (16 here; floor ≥5).

distillation16 variantsconsacrant16 variantscaritatives16 variantsbiologistes16 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list