entretenir

/\ɑ̃.tʁət.niʁ\/ verb

Letters

10 characters

Frequency Rank

#5,341

in French word usage

Misspellings

15

tracked variants

Confusables

4

similar word pairs

entretenir is aFrenchverb. It means: Tenir en bon état. Pronounced \ɑ̃.tʁət.niʁ\. It ranks #5,341 in French word frequency. Often confused with entretenu and entretenue.

Key facts for entretenir
PropertyValue
Headwordentretenir
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\ɑ̃.tʁət.niʁ\
Letters10
Frequency rank#5,341
Misspellings tracked15
Confusable pairs4
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of entretenir in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for entretenir is 10 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ɑ̃.tʁət.niʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #5,341 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 15 documented wrong-spelling variants for entretenir, with forms such as "enntretenir", "enrtetenir", and "entertenir". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "entretenu", "entretenue", "entretenus", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is entretenir, spelled E-N-T-R-E-T-E-N-I-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Tenir en bon état.
  2. 2
    Maintenir en un certain état une chose ou une personne.
  3. 3
    Faire subsister en fournissant les choses nécessaires.
  4. 4
    Pourvoir aux dépenses d’une personne avec laquelle on est en commerce de galanterie.
  5. 5
    Converser avec quelqu’un sur tel ou tel sujet.
  6. 6
    Se conserver, se maintenir.
  7. 7
    S’exercer pour se maintenir au même degré de force, de savoir.
  8. 8
    Converser, discuter.
  9. 9
    Se tenir, s’assujettir réciproquement.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: enntretenir,enrtetenir,entertenir,entreetnir,entreteinr,entretenirr,entretennir,entretenri,entretneir,entrettenir,entrretenir,entrteenir,enttretenir,etnretenir,netretenir

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for entretenir

Misspelling Variants of "entretenir"

enntretenir11enrtetenir10entertenir10entreetnir10entreteinr10entretenirr11entretennir11entretenri10
Misspelling Variants of "entretenir"

Frequency rank: #5,341 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "entretenir"?
"entretenir" is spelled E-N-T-R-E-T-E-N-I-R. The IPA pronunciation is \ɑ̃.tʁət.niʁ\.
What does "entretenir" mean?
As a verb, "entretenir" means: Tenir en bon état.
What words are commonly confused with "entretenir"?
"entretenir" is commonly confused with "entretenu", "entretenue", "entretenus". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "entretenir"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "entretenir" is \ɑ̃.tʁət.niʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "entretenir" come from?
"entretenir" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter E in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.