grain
\ɡʁɛ̃\
The verdict
“grain” is a regularly-used French word, ranked #6,620 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #6,620
- frequency rank, French
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Fruit et semence des céréales contenu dans l’épi.
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 | grain |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ɡʁɛ̃\ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #6,620 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “grain” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for grain is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ɡʁɛ̃\. Corpus data places it at rank #6,620 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 17 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for grain, with forms such as "garin", "ggrain", and "grainn". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "gris", "Gras", "gray", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is grain, spelled G-R-A-I-N.
Definition
- 1Fruit et semence des céréales contenu dans l’épi.
- 2Ce qu’on sème pour la reproduction des céréales.
- 3Fruit de certaines plantes et de certains arbrisseaux.
- 4Sous les tropiques, désigne les légumes secs (haricots rouges ou blancs, lentilles…).
- 5Petit objet de la taille d’une graine.
- 6Chose faite à peu près en forme de grain.
- 7Très petite quantité de quelque chose.
- 8Poids qui était le soixante-douzième d’un gros.
- 9Unité de mesure de poids valant cinq centigrammes soit le quart d’un carat.
- 10Petites aspérités présentes à la surface de certaines étoffes, de certains cuirs, de certaines peaux.
- 11La texture visuelle ou au toucher d’un cuir, d’un bois, d’un papier, d’une peau.
- 12Petit élément homogène ou monocristallin dans un matériau non amorphe. Parties ténues et serrées entre elles qui forment la masse des pierres, des métaux, etc., et que l’on aperçoit à l’endroit où ils sont cassés ou coupés.
- 13Plus petit détail visible d’un tirage photographique, d’une impression et qui définit la qualité de sa résolution.
- 14Vent violent et de peu de durée qui s’élève soudainement et qui est généralement accompagné de précipitations.
- 15Tonalité de la voix.
- 16Élément graphique de très faible surface et de contour irrégulier.
- 17Aspect d’une image résultant de son fractionnement en petits éléments irréguliers.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: garin,ggrain,grainn,grani,grian,grrain,rgain
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of grain - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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
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Using “grain”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is G-R-A-I-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ɡʁɛ̃\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “gris” - see the side-by-side comparison. grain vs gris
- 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.