inepte

\i.nɛpt\

/\i.nɛpt\/ adj

The verdict

“inepte” is uncommon French (frequency #50,902 among 3,561 “I” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#50,902
frequency rank, French
3,561
“I” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui fait preuve de sottise, d’absurdité.

Corpus desk

Index FR-inepte · inepte · French

inepte · rank #50,902 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #50,902
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,561
  • PHOTO-FINISH industriellem…

Nearest frequency peer: industriellement (-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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « inepte »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « inepte » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for inepte
PropertyValue
Headwordinepte
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\i.nɛpt\
Letters6
Frequency rank#50,902
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « inepte » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).ineptetombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « industriellement » (#50,901), « inoffensives » (#50,903), « indexer » (#50,900). Parmi 3,561 lemmes en « I », « inepte » est au #50,902. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

inepte is uncommon French at frequency #50,902 among 3,561 “I” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \i.nɛpt\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Qui fait preuve de sottise, d’absurdité.".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for inepte, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is inepte, spelled I-N-E-P-T-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui fait preuve de sottise, d’absurdité.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Il n'est rien de plus inepte qu'un séminariste ; rien de moins propre à être un jour ce que l'on veut qu'il soit, un pasteur éclairé : ces jeunes gens n'ont la tète remplie que de fadaises mystiques.
  2. Peut-être n’ai-je pas de grands besoins intellectuels à assouvir dans la conversation, mais je me plais parfaitement bien avec Cottard, quoiqu’il fasse des calembours ineptes.

This word in other languages

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 "inepte"?
"inepte" is spelled I-N-E-P-T-E. The IPA pronunciation is \i.nɛpt\.
What does "inepte" mean?
As an adjective, "inepte" means: Qui fait preuve de sottise, d’absurdité.
How do you pronounce "inepte"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "inepte" is \i.nɛpt\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "inepte" come from?
"inepte" 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 "inepte", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list