fantôme
\fɑ̃.tom\
The verdict
“fantôme” is a regularly-used French word, ranked #6,825 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #6,825
- frequency rank, French
- 7
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Apparition d’un défunt sous l’aspect qu’il avait de son vivant ou sous une autre forme, notamment sous un drap blanchâtre.
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 | fantôme |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \fɑ̃.tom\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #6,825 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “fantôme” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for fantôme is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \fɑ̃.tom\. Corpus data places it at rank #6,825 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 13 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for fantôme, with forms such as "afntôme", "fanntôme", and "fantmôe". 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, "fantômes", "fantasme", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
No documented word history exists for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is fantôme, spelled F-A-N-T-Ô-M-E.
Definition
- 1Apparition d’un défunt sous l’aspect qu’il avait de son vivant ou sous une autre forme, notamment sous un drap blanchâtre.
- 2Apparition qui est accompagnée de la croyance à l’existence extérieure et présente d’un personnage qui n’est plus.
- 3Quelqu’un qui est maigre, défait et défiguré.
- 4Ce qui n’est qu’en apparence ; de ce qui n’a pas de réalité.
- 5Ce qui n’est qu’en apparence ; de ce qui n’a pas de réalité.
- 6Ce qui n’est qu’en apparence ; de ce qui n’a pas de réalité.
- 7Chimère qu’on se forme dans l’esprit.
- 8Forme cristalline préservée à l’intérieur d’un cristal.
- 9Qualifie, par apposition, un circuit obtenu par combinaison de deux circuits à l’aide de transformateurs différentiels.
- 10Fiche placée dans les rayonnages signalant un ouvrage indisponible (emprunté, en réparation, en réserve, etc.).
- 11Mannequin ou modèle mathématique utilisé pour simuler les effets des rayonnements sur l’organisme.
- 12Objet permettant d’étalonner un appareil d’imagerie médicale.
- 13Épouvantail.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: afntôme,fanntôme,fantmôe,fantome,fanttôme,fantôem,fantômme,fanôtme,fatnôme,ffantôme,fnatôme
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of fantôme - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "fantôme"?
What does "fantôme" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "fantôme"?
How do you pronounce "fantôme"?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “fantôme”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is F-A-N-T-Ô-M-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \fɑ̃.tom\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “fantômes” - see the side-by-side comparison. fantôme vs fantômes
- 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.