hiatus

^((h muet))\ja.tys\

/^((h muet))\ja.tys\/ noun

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

The verdict

“hiatus” has 8 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #38,339. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#38,339
frequency rank, French
1,969
“H” headwords
8
tracked misspellings
1
confusable pair

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Succession immédiate de deux voyelles qui appartiennent à des syllabes différentes du même mot (héroïque), ou à la frontière de deux mots (Nous sommes à Avignon).

Corpus desk

Index FR-hiatus · hiatus · French

hiatus · rank #38,339 · 8 variants · 1 confusable

  • FREQ-MID #38,339
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 1 pairs
  • VAR-MID 8 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,969
  • PHOTO-FINISH hermitage

Nearest frequency peer: hermitage (-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 « hiatus »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « hiatus » 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).

hiatus vs hits
67% similar

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

Key facts for hiatus
PropertyValue
Headwordhiatus
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA^((h muet))\ja.tys\
Letters6
Frequency rank#38,339
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs1
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « hiatus »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).hiatusse 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 « hermitage » (#38,338), « hispaniques » (#38,340), « hivernage » (#38,341). Parmi 1,969 lemmes en « H », « hiatus » est au #38,339. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 8 spelling variants around hiatus (IPA ^((h muet))\ja.tys\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #38,339 among 1,969 “H” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for hiatus, with forms such as "haitus", "hhiatus", and "hiatsu". 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, "hits", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is hiatus, spelled H-I-A-T-U-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Succession immédiate de deux voyelles qui appartiennent à des syllabes différentes du même mot (héroïque), ou à la frontière de deux mots (Nous sommes à Avignon).
  2. 2
    (Concret) Ouverture.
  3. 3
    (Abstrait) Écart, manque de continuité entre deux notions, principes, idées...
  4. 4
    Espace de temps séparant deux événements.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Il faut continuer, il est vrai, par : « J’ai z’un coquin de frère… », ou risquer un hiatus terrible ; mais pourquoi aussi la langue a-t-elle repoussé ce z si commode, si liant, si séduisant […] ?
  2. Il faut bien se garder de confondre diphtongue et voyelles en hiatus. Deux phonèmes vocaliques peuvent se suivre dans un mot sans former pour autant une diphtongue si, n’appartenant pas à la même syllabe, ils n’ont aucune chance d’entrer dans la même tenue.

Synonyms

discordancebâillement

This word in other languages

hiatus(English)hiato(Español)Hiatus(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • haitus
  • hhiatus
  • hiatsu
  • hiattus
  • hiatuss
  • hiauts
  • hitaus
  • ihatus

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

haitus2hhiatus1hiatsu2hiattus1hiatuss1hiauts2hitaus2ihatus2
Edit distance from "hiatus"

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 "hiatus"?
"hiatus" is spelled H-I-A-T-U-S. The IPA pronunciation is ^((h muet))\ja.tys\.
What does "hiatus" mean?
As a noun, "hiatus" means: Succession immédiate de deux voyelles qui appartiennent à des syllabes différentes du même mot (héroïque), ou à la frontière de deux mots (Nous sommes à Avignon).
What words are commonly confused with "hiatus"?
"hiatus" is commonly confused with "hits". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "hiatus"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "hiatus" is ^((h muet))\ja.tys\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "hiatus" come from?
"hiatus" 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 "hiatus", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

grenat#38,323goulot#38,321inclue#38,359ghibli#38,316

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).

hyène8 variantsjauger8 variantsJohns8 variantsFerrero8 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list