father

/\ˈfɑ.ðɚ\/ noun

Letters

6 characters

Frequency Rank

#42,872

in French word usage

Misspellings

9

tracked variants

Confusables

12

similar word pairs

father is aFrenchnoun. It means: Père. Pronounced \ˈfɑ.ðɚ\. Often confused with fisher and ficher.

Key facts for father
PropertyValue
Headwordfather
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ˈfɑ.ðɚ\
Letters6
Frequency rank#42,872
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs12
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for father is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ˈfɑ.ðɚ\. Corpus data places it at rank #42,872 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Père.".

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 9 documented wrong-spelling variants for father, with forms such as "afther", "fahter", and "fatehr". 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 12 confusable-pair relationships, "fisher", "ficher", "Favier", 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 father, spelled F-A-T-H-E-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Père.

Synonyms

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: afther,fahter,fatehr,fatherr,fathher,fathre,fatther,ffather,ftaher

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for father

Misspelling Variants of "father"

afther6fahter6fatehr6fatherr7fathher7fathre6fatther7ffather7
Misspelling Variants of "father"

Frequency rank: #42,872 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "father"?
"father" is spelled F-A-T-H-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is \ˈfɑ.ðɚ\.
What does "father" mean?
As a noun, "father" means: Père.
What words are commonly confused with "father"?
"father" is commonly confused with "fisher", "ficher", "Favier". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "father"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "father" is \ˈfɑ.ðɚ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "father" come from?
"father" 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 F 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.