gradation
\ɡʁa.da.sjɔ̃\
The verdict
“gradation” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #48,559 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #48,559
- frequency rank, French
- 9
- letters
- 13
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Augmentation successive et par degrés.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | gradation |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ɡʁa.da.sjɔ̃\ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #48,559 |
| Misspellings tracked | 13 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “gradation” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for gradation is 9 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ɡʁa.da.sjɔ̃\. Corpus data places it at rank #48,559 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 13 likely wrong-spelling variants for gradation, with forms such as "gardation", "ggradation", and "graadtion". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "graduation", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
No documented word history exists for this headword, 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 gradation, spelled G-R-A-D-A-T-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1Augmentation successive et par degrés.
- 2Figure de rhétorique qui consiste en la succession de termes classés par ordre croissant ou décroissant.
- 3Passage insensible d’une couleur à une autre.
- 4Artifice de composition qui consiste à faire saillir le personnage ou le groupe principal, en affaiblissant graduellement l’expression, la lumière, etc., dans les autres figures à mesure qu’elles s’éloignent du centre de l’action.
- 5Disposition de plusieurs parties qui sont rangées par degrés ou les unes au-dessus des autres et dont les formes et les ornements sont symétriques.
- 6Déclinaison d’un patron en plusieurs tailles.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: gardation,ggradation,graadtion,gradaiton,gradatino,gradationn,gradatoin,gradattion,graddation,gradtaion,grdaation,grradation,rgadation
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of gradation - 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.
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 "gradation"?
What does "gradation" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "gradation"?
How do you pronounce "gradation"?
What language does "gradation" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “gradation”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is G-R-A-D-A-T-I-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ɡʁa.da.sjɔ̃\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “graduation” - see the side-by-side comparison. gradation vs graduation
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.