issue

\i.sy\

/\i.sy\/ noun

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

The verdict

“issue” sits in 13 confusable pairs (corpus #1,921) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#1,921
frequency rank, French
3,561
“I” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
13
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Sortie, lieu par où l’on sort.

Corpus desk

Index FR-issue · issue · French

issue · rank #1,921 · 4 variants · 13 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #1,921
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 13 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,561
  • PHOTO-FINISH interdit

Nearest frequency peer: interdit (-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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « issue »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « issue » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

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).

issue vs Issy
40% similar
issue vs issus
80% similar
issue vs issues
83% similar

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

Key facts for issue
PropertyValue
Headwordissue
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\i.sy\
Letters5
Frequency rank#1,921
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs13
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « issue »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).issuese 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 « interdit » (#1,920), « journalistes » (#1,922), « histoires » (#1,919). Parmi 3,561 lemmes en « I », « issue » est au #1,921. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for issue is neighbouring look-alikes ("Issy", "issus", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \i.sy\. Frequency #1,921 among 3,561 “I” headwords. 5 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for issue, with forms such as "isseu", "isue", and "isuse". 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 13 confusable-pair relationships, "Issy", "issus", "issues", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, 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 issue, spelled I-S-S-U-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Sortie, lieu par où l’on sort.
  2. 2
    Passage, ouverture par laquelle une chose peut sortir.
  3. 3
    Les extrémités, en parlant des entrailles de quelques animaux, comme les pieds, la tête et la queue, le cœur, le foie, le poumon, la rate, etc.
  4. 4
    Ce qui reste des moutures après la farine, comme le son, la recoupe, etc.
  5. 5
    Événement final, manière dont on sort d’une affaire.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Lorsqu'il [un énorme floe] s'arc-bouterait d'un côté sur le Cap Hope, de l'autre sur le Cap Tobin, toute issue serait fermée ; il nous faudrait attendre sa dislocation […].
  2. Si une semaine s'écoulait sans escapade, on le voyait s'ennuyer, dépérir et fureter dans le logis pour trouver une issue.

Synonyms

sortiefin

Antonyms

impasse

This word in other languages

exit(English)salida(Español)Ausgang(Deutsch)porta(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • isseu
  • isue
  • isuse
  • sisue

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

isseu2isue1isuse2sisue2
Edit distance from "issue"

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 "issue"?
"issue" is spelled I-S-S-U-E. The IPA pronunciation is \i.sy\.
What does "issue" mean?
As a noun, "issue" means: Sortie, lieu par où l’on sort.
What words are commonly confused with "issue"?
"issue" is commonly confused with "Issy", "issus", "issues". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "issue"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "issue" is \i.sy\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "issue" come from?
"issue" 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 "issue", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

juifs#1,923mille#1,924fiche#1,917plans#1,929

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list