gratter

\ɡʁa.te\

/\ɡʁa.te\/ verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“gratter” has 9 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #12,587. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#12,587
frequency rank, French
2,617
“G” headwords
9
tracked misspellings
10
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Racler pour nettoyer, pour effacer ou pour polir.

Corpus desk

Index FR-gratter · gratter · French

gratter · rank #12,587 · 9 variants · 10 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #12,587
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 10 pairs
  • VAR-MID 9 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,617
  • PHOTO-FINISH griffes

Nearest frequency peer: griffes (+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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « gratter »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

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

gratter vs grotte
71% similar
gratter vs graver
71% similar
gratter vs grottes
71% similar

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

Key facts for gratter
PropertyValue
Headwordgratter
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\ɡʁa.te\
Letters7
Frequency rank#12,587
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs10
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « gratter »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).gratterse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « griffes » (#12,588), « gothique » (#12,585), « has » (#12,589). Parmi 2,617 lemmes en « G », « gratter » est au #12,587. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 9 spelling variants around gratter (IPA \ɡʁa.te\), averb. Corpus frequency is #12,587 among 2,617 “G” headwords. Wiktionary lists 8 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for gratter, with forms such as "gartter", "ggratter", and "grater". 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 10 confusable-pair relationships, "grotte", "graver", "grottes", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is gratter, spelled G-R-A-T-T-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Racler pour nettoyer, pour effacer ou pour polir.
  2. 2
    Remuer avec ses ongles.
  3. 3
    Doubler, dépasser quelqu’un ou quelque chose.
  4. 4
    Récupérer ; obtenir.
  5. 5
    (Vendée, Bretagne, Normandie, Île-de-France) Tricher à l’aide de gratte lors d’un examen.
  6. 6
    Travailler.
  7. 7
    Creuser ou approfondir sa recherche ou son enquête.
  8. 8
    Passer les ongles ou quelque chose de semblable, un peu fortement et à plusieurs reprises, sur quelque endroit du corps.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Mais Minouche tirait déjà un casier puis deux d’un vieux meuble de musée qu’elle avait découvert au marché aux puces et qu’elle avait, elle-même, gratté et reverni.
  2. Gratter un parchemin un papier pour enlever l’écriture.

This word in other languages

itch(English)rascar(Español)jucken(Deutsch)arranhar(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • gartter
  • ggratter
  • grater
  • gratetr
  • gratterr
  • grattre
  • grratter
  • grtater
  • rgatter

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of gratter - 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.

gartter2ggratter1grater1gratetr2gratterr1grattre2grratter1grtater2
Edit distance from "gratter"

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 "gratter"?
"gratter" is spelled G-R-A-T-T-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is \ɡʁa.te\.
What does "gratter" mean?
As a verb, "gratter" means: Racler pour nettoyer, pour effacer ou pour polir.
What words are commonly confused with "gratter"?
"gratter" is commonly confused with "grotte", "graver", "grottes". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "gratter"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "gratter" is \ɡʁa.te\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "gratter" come from?
"gratter" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "gratter", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

griffes#12,588fraises#12,579formats#12,576flamand#12,574

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).

gorges9 variantsfixées9 variantsmamans9 variantsdéfier9 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list