entretien

/\ɑ̃.tʁə.tjɛ̃\/ noun

Letters

9 characters

Frequency Rank

#1,592

in French word usage

Misspellings

13

tracked variants

Confusables

4

similar word pairs

entretien is aFrenchnoun. It means: Maintenance ; ensemble des soins et dépenses qu'exigent le maintien de certaines choses en bon état. Pronounced \ɑ̃.tʁə.tjɛ̃\. It ranks #1,592 in French word frequency. Often confused with entretuer and entretiens.

Key facts for entretien
PropertyValue
Headwordentretien
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ɑ̃.tʁə.tjɛ̃\
Letters9
Frequency rank#1,592
Misspellings tracked13
Confusable pairs4
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for entretien is 9 letters long, classified as anoun, 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 Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 13 documented wrong-spelling variants for entretien, with forms such as "enntretien", "enrtetien", and "entertien". 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, "entretuer", "entretiens", "entretient", 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 entretien, spelled E-N-T-R-E-T-I-E-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Maintenance ; ensemble des soins et dépenses qu'exigent le maintien de certaines choses en bon état.
  2. 2
    Ensemble des travaux de jardin ayant pour objet les soins apportés aux pelouses et aux végétaux et le nettoyage des massifs et des circulations.
  3. 3
    Fait de maintenir sa santé, sa forme physique, ses capacités intellectuelles ou toute autre chose dans un certain état.
  4. 4
    Ce qui est nécessaire pour la subsistance matérielle d’un individu ou d’un groupe et le fait de pourvoir à cette subsistance.
  5. 5
    Action de s’entretenir avec une ou plusieurs personnes, discussion.
  6. 6
    Ouvrage rédigé sous forme de dialogues.
  7. 7
    Colloque, symposium, réunion de spécialistes.
  8. 8
    Maintien du son dans une enveloppe sonore, comme par exemple lorsqu'une touche d'un piano reste enfoncée.
  9. 9
    Moyen ou chose qui va entretenir un sentiment.

Synonyms

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

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for entretien

Misspelling Variants of "entretien"

enntretien10enrtetien9entertien9entreiten9entretein9entretienn10entretine9entrettien10
Misspelling Variants of "entretien"

Frequency rank: #1,592 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "entretien"?
"entretien" is spelled E-N-T-R-E-T-I-E-N. The IPA pronunciation is \ɑ̃.tʁə.tjɛ̃\.
What does "entretien" mean?
As a noun, "entretien" means: Maintenance ; ensemble des soins et dépenses qu'exigent le maintien de certaines choses en bon état.
What words are commonly confused with "entretien"?
"entretien" is commonly confused with "entretuer", "entretiens", "entretient". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "entretien"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "entretien" is \ɑ̃.tʁə.tjɛ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "entretien" come from?
"entretien" 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.