investigation
\ɛ̃.vɛs.ti.ɡa.sjɔ̃\
The verdict
“investigation” is a regularly-used French word, ranked #9,681 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #9,681
- frequency rank, French
- 13
- letters
- 19
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Recherche suivie sur quelque objet.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | investigation |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ɛ̃.vɛs.ti.ɡa.sjɔ̃\ |
| Letters | 13 |
| Frequency rank | #9,681 |
| Misspellings tracked | 19 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “investigation” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for investigation is 13 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ɛ̃.vɛs.ti.ɡa.sjɔ̃\. Corpus data places it at rank #9,681 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Recherche suivie sur quelque objet.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 19 likely wrong-spelling variants for investigation, with forms such as "inevstigation", "innvestigation", and "invesitgation". 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 2 confusable-pair relationships, "investigations", "instigation", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is investigation, spelled I-N-V-E-S-T-I-G-A-T-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1Recherche suivie sur quelque objet.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: inevstigation,innvestigation,invesitgation,invesstigation,investgiation,investiagtion,investigaiton,investigatino,investigationn,investigatoin,investigattion,investiggation,investigtaion,investtigation,invetsigation,invsetigation,invvestigation,ivnestigation,nivestigation
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of investigation - 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.
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 "investigation"?
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Using “investigation”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is I-N-V-E-S-T-I-G-A-T-I-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ɛ̃.vɛs.ti.ɡa.sjɔ̃\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “investigations” - see the side-by-side comparison. investigation vs investigations
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.