littéraire
\li.te.ʁɛʁ\
The verdict
“littéraire” is a regularly-used French word, ranked #3,270 in French word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #3,270
- frequency rank, French
- 10
- letters
- 13
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Qui appartient aux lettres, à la littérature.
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 | littéraire |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \li.te.ʁɛʁ\ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #3,270 |
| Misspellings tracked | 13 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “littéraire” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for littéraire is 10 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \li.te.ʁɛʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #3,270 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 13 likely wrong-spelling variants for littéraire, with forms such as "ilttéraire", "litteraire", and "littréaire". 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 3 confusable-pair relationships, "littérale", "littérature", "littéraires", 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 is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is littéraire, spelled L-I-T-T-É-R-A-I-R-E.
Definition
- 1Qui appartient aux lettres, à la littérature.
- 2Qualifie un esprit caractérisé par le goût et l’intelligence de la littérature.
- 3Se dit des qualités de composition et de style par lesquelles se caractérisent les œuvres qui appartiennent à la littérature.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ilttéraire,litteraire,littréaire,littéarire,littéraier,littérairre,littérarie,littériare,littérraire,litéraire,litétraire,llittéraire,ltitéraire
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of littéraire - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 "littéraire"?
What does "littéraire" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "littéraire"?
How do you pronounce "littéraire"?
What language does "littéraire" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “littéraire”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is L-I-T-T-É-R-A-I-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \li.te.ʁɛʁ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “littérale” - see the side-by-side comparison. littéraire vs littérale
- 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.