five
\ˈfai̯f\
The verdict
“five” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #15,146 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #15,146
- frequency rank, French
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - (radiotéléphonie) Mot de code radiotéléphonique de l'OACI, OTAN et SIA pour le chiffre 5.
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 | five |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ˈfai̯f\ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #15,146 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “five” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for five is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ˈfai̯f\. Corpus data places it at rank #15,146 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "(radiotéléphonie) Mot de code radiotéléphonique de l'OACI, OTAN et SIA pour le chiffre 5.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for five, with forms such as "ffive", "fiev", and "fivve". 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, "fix", "fle", "fixe", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is five, spelled F-I-V-E.
Definition
- 1(radiotéléphonie) Mot de code radiotéléphonique de l'OACI, OTAN et SIA pour le chiffre 5.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ffive,fiev,fivve,fvie,ifve
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of five - 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
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Using “five”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is F-I-V-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ˈfai̯f\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “fix” - see the side-by-side comparison. five vs fix
- 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.