gagne-pain
\ɡaɲ.pɛ̃\
The verdict
“gagne-pain” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Ce qui fait subsister quelqu’un, l’outil ou le métier qui lui sert à gagner sa vie, son pain.
Corpus desk
Index FR-gagne-pain · gagne-pain · French
gagne-pain · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "G" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | gagne-pain |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ɡaɲ.pɛ̃\ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « gagne-pain » en français
Rare enough to double-check
gagne-pain is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \ɡaɲ.pɛ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for gagne-pain, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is gagne-pain, spelled G-A-G-N-E---P-A-I-N.
Definition
- 1Ce qui fait subsister quelqu’un, l’outil ou le métier qui lui sert à gagner sa vie, son pain.
- 2Personne qui fait subsister une ou plusieurs personnes par son métier.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how gagne-pain appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Je crus d’abord l’amputation inévitable ; mais mutiler la main droite à un ouvrier, c’est lui ôter son gagne-pain. Tout devait être tenté pour conserver l’intégrité de ce membre.
[…] les docteurs du Talmud ne donnaient-ils pas eux-mêmes l’exemple en exerçant, pour assurer leur gagne-pain, les métiers les plus humbles, tels que forgerons, ou savetier, ou fabricant d’épingles, etc. …?
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.