germain

/\ʒɛʁ.mɛ̃\/ adj

Letters

7 characters

Frequency Rank

#4,945

in French word usage

Misspellings

10

tracked variants

Confusables

9

similar word pairs

germain is anFrenchadj. It means: De mêmes père et mère, par opposition à consanguin (de même père et de mères différentes) et à utérin (de même mère et de pères différents). Pronounced \ʒɛʁ.mɛ̃\. It ranks #4,945 in French word frequency. Often confused with grain and German.

Key facts for germain
PropertyValue
Headwordgermain
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdj
IPA\ʒɛʁ.mɛ̃\
Letters7
Frequency rank#4,945
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs9
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for germain is 7 letters long, classified as anadj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ʒɛʁ.mɛ̃\. Corpus data places it at rank #4,945 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 10 documented wrong-spelling variants for germain, with forms such as "egrmain", "gemrain", and "geramin". 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 9 confusable-pair relationships, "grain", "German", "Gervais", 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 germain, spelled G-E-R-M-A-I-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    De mêmes père et mère, par opposition à consanguin (de même père et de mères différentes) et à utérin (de même mère et de pères différents).
  2. 2
    Issu de deux frères, de deux sœurs, ou du frère et de la sœur.
  3. 3
    Voisin, analogue, semblable.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: egrmain,gemrain,geramin,germainn,germani,germian,germmain,gerrmain,ggermain,gremain

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for germain

Misspelling Variants of "germain"

egrmain7gemrain7geramin7germainn8germani7germian7germmain8gerrmain8
Misspelling Variants of "germain"

Frequency rank: #4,945 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "germain"?
"germain" is spelled G-E-R-M-A-I-N. The IPA pronunciation is \ʒɛʁ.mɛ̃\.
What does "germain" mean?
As an adj, "germain" means: De mêmes père et mère, par opposition à consanguin (de même père et de mères différentes) et à utérin (de même mère et de pères différents).
What words are commonly confused with "germain"?
"germain" is commonly confused with "grain", "German", "Gervais". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "germain"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "germain" is \ʒɛʁ.mɛ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "germain" come from?
"germain" 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 G 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.