grief

\ɡʁi.jɛf\

/\ɡʁi.jɛf\/ adj

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

The verdict

“grief” has 6 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #28,185. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#28,185
frequency rank, French
2,617
“G” headwords
6
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui est grave, accablant.

Corpus desk

Index FR-grief · grief · French

grief · rank #28,185 · 6 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #28,185
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 6 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,617
  • PHOTO-FINISH greniers

Nearest frequency peer: greniers (-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 « grief »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « grief » 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).

grief vs gris
60% similar
grief vs grue
60% similar
grief vs gril
60% similar

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

Key facts for grief
PropertyValue
Headwordgrief
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\ɡʁi.jɛf\
Letters5
Frequency rank#28,185
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « grief »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.griefse place ici:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « greniers » (#28,184), « guéris » (#28,186), « graphie » (#28,183). Parmi 2,617 lemmes en « G », « grief » est au #28,185. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 6 spelling variants around grief (IPA \ɡʁi.jɛf\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #28,185 among 2,617 “G” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for grief, with forms such as "ggrief", "giref", and "greif". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "gris", "grue", "gril", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is grief, spelled G-R-I-E-F.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui est grave, accablant.
  2. 2
    Qui est douloureux.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Le crime, le cas n’est pas si grief que vous le faites.
  2. Non qu'il ne me soit grief que la Terre possède Ce qui me fut si cher.

This word in other languages

grievous(English)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ggrief
  • giref
  • greif
  • grieff
  • grrief
  • rgief

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of grief - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

ggrief1giref2greif2grieff1grrief1rgief2
Edit distance from "grief"

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 "grief"?
"grief" is spelled G-R-I-E-F. The IPA pronunciation is \ɡʁi.jɛf\.
What does "grief" mean?
As an adjective, "grief" means: Qui est grave, accablant.
What words are commonly confused with "grief"?
"grief" is commonly confused with "gris", "grue", "gril". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "grief"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "grief" is \ɡʁi.jɛf\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "grief" come from?
"grief" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "grief", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

gérez#28,189hosto#28,198Erika#28,159jarre#28,218

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).

fest6 variantsLazio6 variantsmassue6 variantsCory6 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list