fomenter

\fɔ.mɑ̃.te\

/\fɔ.mɑ̃.te\/ verb

The verdict

“fomenter” is uncommon French (frequency #56,602 among 3,276 “F” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#56,602
frequency rank, French
3,276
“F” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Soumettre à une fomentation pour « entretenir » la vie.

Corpus desk

Index FR-fomenter · fomenter · French

fomenter · rank #56,602 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #56,602
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,276
  • PHOTO-FINISH fiscaliste

Nearest frequency peer: fiscaliste (-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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « fomenter »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « fomenter » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for fomenter
PropertyValue
Headwordfomenter
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\fɔ.mɑ̃.te\
Letters8
Frequency rank#56,602
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « fomenter » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).fomentertombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « fiscaliste » (#56,601), « Forcalquier » (#56,603), « filtrent » (#56,600). Parmi 3,276 lemmes en « F », « fomenter » est au #56,602. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

fomenter is uncommon French at frequency #56,602 among 3,276 “F” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \fɔ.mɑ̃.te\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

No generated misspelling entries exist for fomenter in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is fomenter, spelled F-O-M-E-N-T-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Soumettre à une fomentation pour « entretenir » la vie.
  2. 2
    Entretenir, attiser des actions, des sentiments violents et destructeurs.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Ainsi le premier établissement local des grandes chaînes de montagnes appartient à cette seconde époque, qui a précédé de plusieurs siècles celle de la formation des montagnes calcaires, lesquelles n’ont existé qu’après l’établissement des eaux, puisque leur composition suppose la production des coquillages et des autres substances que la mer fomente et n…
  2. […] ; d’autres encore affirmaient que son départ n’était qu’une manœuvre destinée à sauver la face, à faire croire à la population qu’il était le prisonnier de la France et à fomenter ainsi un mouvement francophobe.

This word in other languages

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 "fomenter"?
"fomenter" is spelled F-O-M-E-N-T-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is \fɔ.mɑ̃.te\.
What does "fomenter" mean?
As a verb, "fomenter" means: Soumettre à une fomentation pour « entretenir » la vie.
How do you pronounce "fomenter"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "fomenter" is \fɔ.mɑ̃.te\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "fomenter" come from?
"fomenter" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "fomenter", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list