entretien
\ɑ̃.tʁə.tjɛ̃\
The verdict
“entretien” is a regularly-used French word, ranked #1,592 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #1,592
- frequency rank, French
- 9
- letters
- 13
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Maintenance ; ensemble des soins et dépenses qu'exigent le maintien de certaines choses en bon état.
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 | entretien |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ɑ̃.tʁə.tjɛ̃\ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #1,592 |
| Misspellings tracked | 13 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “entretien” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for entretien is 9 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ɑ̃.tʁə.tjɛ̃\. Corpus data places it at rank #1,592 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 generated misspelling index lists 13 likely wrong-spelling variants for entretien, with forms such as "enntretien", "enrtetien", and "entertien". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "entretuer", "entretiens", "entretient", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is entretien, spelled E-N-T-R-E-T-I-E-N.
Definition
- 1Maintenance ; ensemble des soins et dépenses qu'exigent le maintien de certaines choses en bon état.
- 2Ensemble des travaux de jardin ayant pour objet les soins apportés aux pelouses et aux végétaux et le nettoyage des massifs et des circulations.
- 3Fait de maintenir sa santé, sa forme physique, ses capacités intellectuelles ou toute autre chose dans un certain état.
- 4Ce qui est nécessaire pour la subsistance matérielle d’un individu ou d’un groupe et le fait de pourvoir à cette subsistance.
- 5Action de s’entretenir avec une ou plusieurs personnes, discussion.
- 6Ouvrage rédigé sous forme de dialogues.
- 7Colloque, symposium, réunion de spécialistes.
- 8Maintien du son dans une enveloppe sonore, comme par exemple lorsqu'une touche d'un piano reste enfoncée.
- 9Moyen ou chose qui va entretenir un sentiment.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: enntretien,enrtetien,entertien,entreiten,entretein,entretienn,entretine,entrettien,entrretien,entrteien,enttretien,etnretien,netretien
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of entretien - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 "entretien"?
What does "entretien" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "entretien"?
How do you pronounce "entretien"?
What language does "entretien" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “entretien”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is E-N-T-R-E-T-I-E-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ɑ̃.tʁə.tjɛ̃\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “entretuer” - see the side-by-side comparison. entretien vs entretuer
- 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.