former

\fɔʁ.me\

/\fɔʁ.me\/ verb

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

The verdict

“former” has 9 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #2,476. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#2,476
frequency rank, French
3,276
“F” headwords
9
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Créer en donnant l’être et la forme.

Corpus desk

Index FR-former · former · French

former · rank #2,476 · 9 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #2,476
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 9 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,276
  • PHOTO-FINISH fenêtre

Nearest frequency peer: fenêtre (-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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « former »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « former » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

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).

former vs forte
67% similar
former vs foyer
67% similar
former vs fumer
67% similar

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

Key facts for former
PropertyValue
Headwordformer
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\fɔʁ.me\
Letters6
Frequency rank#2,476
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « former »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).formerse place ici:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « fenêtre » (#2,475), « fournir » (#2,477), « exemples » (#2,474). Parmi 3,276 lemmes en « F », « former » est au #2,476. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 9 spelling variants around former (IPA \fɔʁ.me\), averb. Corpus frequency is #2,476 among 3,276 “F” headwords. Wiktionary lists 9 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for former, with forms such as "fformer", "fomrer", and "foremr". 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, "forte", "foyer", "fumer", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is former, spelled F-O-R-M-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Créer en donnant l’être et la forme.
  2. 2
    Produire ; constituer.
  3. 3
    Se dit de la manière de faire, de composer les mots, ou de les modifier, de les varier.
  4. 4
    Façonner en donnant une certaine forme ou une certaine figure.
  5. 5
    Produire, concevoir dans son esprit.
  6. 6
    Proposer, exposer ce qu’on a conçu.
  7. 7
    Organiser par une coordination de différents éléments.
  8. 8
    Instruire, façonner par l’instruction, par l’éducation de manière à faire contracter certaines habitudes.
  9. 9
    Il se dit, dans un sens analogue, en parlant du goût, du style, etc.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Dieu a formé l’homme à son image, il l’a formé du limon de la terre.
  2. En continuant à tourner les pages, Hervé en trouva deux où on avait tracé des lignes qui avaient l'air de former des plans topographiques.

This word in other languages

form(English)formar(Español)bilden(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • fformer
  • fomrer
  • foremr
  • formerr
  • formmer
  • formre
  • forrmer
  • fromer
  • ofrmer

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of former - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

fformer1fomrer2foremr2formerr1formmer1formre2forrmer1fromer2
Edit distance from "former"

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 "former"?
"former" is spelled F-O-R-M-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is \fɔʁ.me\.
What does "former" mean?
As a verb, "former" means: Créer en donnant l’être et la forme.
What words are commonly confused with "former"?
"former" is commonly confused with "forte", "foyer", "fumer". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "former"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "former" is \fɔʁ.me\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "former" come from?
"former" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "former", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

frappe#2,478jusque#2,483courte#2,468connue#2,467

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).

chiens9 variantscercle9 variantsrepris9 variantsrésumé9 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list