frère

/\fʁɛʁ\/ noun

Letters

5 characters

Frequency Rank

#542

in French word usage

Misspellings

8

tracked variants

Confusables

20

similar word pairs

frère is aFrenchnoun. It means: Homme ou garçon enfant du même père et de la même mère qu’un ou plusieurs autre(s) individu(s) ; membre masculin d’une adelphie. Pronounced \fʁɛʁ\. It ranks #542 in French word frequency. Often confused with Freud and frise.

Key facts for frère
PropertyValue
Headwordfrère
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\fʁɛʁ\
Letters5
Frequency rank#542
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for frère is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \fʁɛʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #542 in overall French word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 8 documented wrong-spelling variants for frère, with forms such as "ffrère", "frere", and "frrèe". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Freud", "frise", "frite", 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 frère, spelled F-R-È-R-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Homme ou garçon enfant du même père et de la même mère qu’un ou plusieurs autre(s) individu(s) ; membre masculin d’une adelphie.
  2. 2
    Tous les hommes en général comme étant tous sortis d’un même père et d’une même mère, comme étant tous de la même espèce.
  3. 3
    Tous les chrétiens, comme étant tous enfants de Dieu par le baptême.
  4. 4
    Compagnon d’une même cause.
  5. 5
    Choses qui ont entre elles une ressemblance, une communauté au moins apparente. Utilisé seulement pour les noms masculins.
  6. 6
    Terme religieux marquant l’appartenance à un ordre.
  7. 7
    Membre d’un clan, d'une confrérie, etc.
  8. 8
    ou Forme d’adresse amicale, parfois non-genré, → voir frère

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: ffrère,frere,frrèe,frrère,frèer,frèrre,fèrre,rfère

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for frère

Misspelling Variants of "frère"

ffrère6frere5frrèe5frrère6frèer5frèrre6fèrre5rfère5
Misspelling Variants of "frère"

Frequency rank: #542 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "frère"?
"frère" is spelled F-R-È-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \fʁɛʁ\.
What does "frère" mean?
As a noun, "frère" means: Homme ou garçon enfant du même père et de la même mère qu’un ou plusieurs autre(s) individu(s) ; membre masculin d’une adelphie.
What words are commonly confused with "frère"?
"frère" is commonly confused with "Freud", "frise", "frite". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "frère"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "frère" is \fʁɛʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "frère" come from?
"frère" 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.