hostile

\ɔs.til\

/\ɔs.til\/ adj

The verdict

“hostile” has 10 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #7,708. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#7,708
frequency rank, French
1,969
“H” headwords
10
tracked misspellings
5
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui est d’un ennemi, qui annonce, qui caractérise un ennemi.

Corpus desk

Index FR-hostile · hostile · French

hostile · rank #7,708 · 10 variants · 5 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #7,708
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 5 pairs
  • VAR-MID 10 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,969
  • PHOTO-FINISH harper

Nearest frequency peer: harper (-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 « hostile »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « hostile » 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).

hostile vs hostiles
88% similar
hostile vs hostilité
67% similar
hostile vs hostie
86% similar

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

Key facts for hostile
PropertyValue
Headwordhostile
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\ɔs.til\
Letters7
Frequency rank#7,708
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs5
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « hostile »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).hostilese 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 « harper » (#7,707), « Howard » (#7,709), « habits » (#7,706). Parmi 1,969 lemmes en « H », « hostile » est au #7,708. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 10 spelling variants around hostile (IPA \ɔs.til\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #7,708 among 1,969 “H” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for hostile, with forms such as "hhostile", "hositle", and "hosstile". 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 5 confusable-pair relationships, "hostiles", "hostilité", "hostie", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is hostile, spelled H-O-S-T-I-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui est d’un ennemi, qui annonce, qui caractérise un ennemi.
  2. 2
    Qui est fermement opposé à quelque chose ou à quelqu’un.
  3. 3
    Qualifie une OPA qui n’a pas l’assentiment de, voire est jugée indésirable par, la société visée par ladite OPA.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Le pape Innocent III (1193-1216) devait rompre avec cette tradition de tolérance et se faire l’inspirateur d’une politique hostile, qu’il mena avec une vigueur exceptionnelle.
  2. Les historiens de la philosophie me paraissent avoir été très hostiles à Xénophon parce qu'il est trop vieux Grec; Platon leur convient mieux parce qu’il est plus aristocrate, et par suite plus détaché de l’économie.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • hhostile
  • hositle
  • hosstile
  • hostiel
  • hostille
  • hostlie
  • hosttile
  • hotsile
  • hsotile
  • ohstile

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

hhostile1hositle2hosstile1hostiel2hostille1hostlie2hosttile1hotsile2
Edit distance from "hostile"

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 "hostile"?
"hostile" is spelled H-O-S-T-I-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ɔs.til\.
What does "hostile" mean?
As an adjective, "hostile" means: Qui est d’un ennemi, qui annonce, qui caractérise un ennemi.
What words are commonly confused with "hostile"?
"hostile" is commonly confused with "hostiles", "hostilité", "hostie". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "hostile"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "hostile" is \ɔs.til\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "hostile" come from?
"hostile" 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 "hostile", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (10 here; floor ≥5).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list