fate

\fat\

/\fat\/ noun

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

The verdict

“fate” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #39,294) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#39,294
frequency rank, French
3,276
“F” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Celle qui est contente d’elle-même et qui le laisse voir.

Corpus desk

Index FR-fate · fate · French

fate · rank #39,294 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #39,294
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,276
  • PHOTO-FINISH fap

Nearest frequency peer: fap (-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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « fate »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « fate » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

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).

fate vs fe
50% similar
fate vs ft
50% similar
fate vs fit
50% similar

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

Key facts for fate
PropertyValue
Headwordfate
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\fat\
Letters4
Frequency rank#39,294
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « fate »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).fatese 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 « fap » (#39,293), « faussaire » (#39,295), « fedora » (#39,296). Parmi 3,276 lemmes en « F », « fate » est au #39,294. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for fate is neighbouring look-alikes ("fe", "ft", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \fat\. Frequency #39,294 among 3,276 “F” headwords. Gloss: "Celle qui est contente d’elle-même et qui le laisse voir.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for fate, with forms such as "afte", "fatte", and "ffate". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "fe", "ft", "fit", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is fate, spelled F-A-T-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Celle qui est contente d’elle-même et qui le laisse voir.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Je vous déclarerai, sans être fate, que les danseuses sont les seules artistes consciencieuses.
  2. Quoique fat, d’Orsay fut aimé par les femmes les plus fates de son temps.

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • afte
  • fatte
  • ffate
  • ftae

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

afte2fatte1ffate1ftae2
Edit distance from "fate"

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 "fate"?
"fate" is spelled F-A-T-E. The IPA pronunciation is \fat\.
What does "fate" mean?
As a noun, "fate" means: Celle qui est contente d’elle-même et qui le laisse voir.
What words are commonly confused with "fate"?
"fate" is commonly confused with "fe", "ft", "fit". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "fate"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "fate" is \fat\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "fate" come from?
"fate" 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 "fate", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Esch#39,284gril#39,326hear#39,333ilan#39,343

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list