gouvernante

Name: gouvernante, French Word Data
Creator: Wiktionary
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

\ɡu.vɛʁ.nɑ̃t\

/\ɡu.vɛʁ.nɑ̃t\/ noun

By PlainSpell · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) · analyzed September 3, 2026

The verdict

“gouvernante” has 16 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #21,956. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#21,956
frequency rank, French: 2,617
“G” headwords: 16
tracked misspellings: 3
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Femme à laquelle on confie l’éducation d’un ou de plusieurs enfants.

Corpus desk

Index FR-gouvernante · gouvernante · French

gouvernante · rank #21,956 · 16 variants · 3 confusables

FREQ-MID #21,956
LEN-MEGA 11 letters
VOW-5 5 vowels
CONFUS-LOW 3 pairs
VAR-HIGH 16 variants
BOOK-MID 2,617
PHOTO-FINISH globes

Nearest frequency peer: globes (-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.

gear

78,048
germaine

78,047
globes

78,046
gouvernante

78,045
graver

78,044
guichets

78,043

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

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

gouvernante vs gouvernent

82% similar

gouvernante vs gouvernants

91% similar

gouvernante vs gouvernance

91% similar

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

Key facts for gouvernante
Property	Value
Headword	gouvernante
Language	French
Part of speech	Noun
IPA	\ɡu.vɛʁ.nɑ̃t\
Letters	11
Frequency rank	#21,956
Misspellings tracked	16
Confusable pairs	3
Source	Wiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « gouvernante »

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

#21,956

#1#100#1K#10K#100K

← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « globes » (#21,955), « graver » (#21,957), « germaine » (#21,954). Parmi 2,617 lemmes en « G », « gouvernante » est au #21,956. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 16 spelling variants around gouvernante (IPA \ɡu.vɛʁ.nɑ̃t\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #21,956 among 2,617 “G” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 16 likely wrong-spelling variants for gouvernante, with forms such as "ggouvernante", "gouevrnante", and "gouvenrante". 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 3 confusable-pair relationships, "gouvernent", "gouvernants", "gouvernance", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is gouvernante, spelled G-O-U-V-E-R-N-A-N-T-E.

Definition

1
Femme à laquelle on confie l’éducation d’un ou de plusieurs enfants.
2
Femme qui a soin du ménage d’un homme veuf ou célibataire.
3
Employée responsable du ménage des chambres et du personnel affecté à ce travail.
4
Femme chargée de la direction d’une subdivision administrative de premier niveau, comme une province ou un État, une colonie ou un grand établissement financier.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

[…], et, quoiqu'elle n'eût pas été élevée très religieusement, elle avait demandé a sa gouvernante de la conduire à l'église Saint-Augustin où affluaient, ce jour-là, les pénitentes de distinction.
Cette odeur de chou, de crevettes et de gingembre grésillant ensemble me reporta seize année en arrière, à l’époque où ma douce gouvernante Nishio-san me concoctait le même régal, que je n’avais jamais plus remangé depuis.

Synonyms

préceptrice gouverneresse bonne femme de charge gouvernatrice gouverneure gouverneresse gouverneuse

This word in other languages

governess(English)institutriz(Español)Hauslehrerin(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

ggouvernante
gouevrnante
gouvenrante
gouverannte
gouvernanet
gouvernannte
gouvernantte
gouvernatne
gouvernnante
gouvernnate
gouverrnante
gouvrenante
gouvvernante
govuernante
guovernante
oguvernante

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of gouvernante - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

Edit distance from "gouvernante"

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 "gouvernante"?

"gouvernante" is spelled G-O-U-V-E-R-N-A-N-T-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ɡu.vɛʁ.nɑ̃t\.

What does "gouvernante" mean?

As a noun, "gouvernante" means: Femme à laquelle on confie l’éducation d’un ou de plusieurs enfants.

What words are commonly confused with "gouvernante"?

"gouvernante" is commonly confused with "gouvernent", "gouvernants", "gouvernance". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.

How do you pronounce "gouvernante"?

The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "gouvernante" is \ɡu.vɛʁ.nɑ̃t\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.

What language does "gouvernante" come from?

"gouvernante" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.

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 "gouvernante", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

lieutenants#21,992 disparaisse#21,911 descendante#21,908 cosmopolite#21,896

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (16 here; floor ≥5).

Cisjordanie16 variants persistant16 variants prétendait16 variants regardaient16 variants