maintenant

\mɛ̃t.nɑ̃\

/\mɛ̃t.nɑ̃\/ adv

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

The verdict

“maintenant” has 15 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #234. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#234
frequency rank, French
5,038
“M” headwords
15
tracked misspellings
3
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - À l’instant présent ou dans la période de temps actuelle plus ou moins étendue.

Corpus desk

Index FR-maintenant · maintenant · French

maintenant · rank #234 · 15 variants · 3 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #234
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 3 pairs
  • VAR-HIGH 15 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,038
  • PHOTO-FINISH groupe

Nearest frequency peer: groupe (-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 « maintenant »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « maintenant » 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).

maintenant vs Maintenon
70% similar
maintenant vs maintenait
90% similar
maintenant vs maintenance
82% similar

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

Key facts for maintenant
PropertyValue
Headwordmaintenant
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdverb
IPA\mɛ̃t.nɑ̃\
Letters10
Frequency rank#234
Misspellings tracked15
Confusable pairs3
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « maintenant »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).maintenantse place ici:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « groupe » (#233), « maison » (#235), « avais » (#232). Parmi 5,038 lemmes en « M », « maintenant » est au #234. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 15 spelling variants around maintenant (IPA \mɛ̃t.nɑ̃\), anadverb. Corpus frequency is #234 among 5,038 “M” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 15 likely wrong-spelling variants for maintenant, with forms such as "amintenant", "mainetnant", and "mainntenant". 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 3 confusable-pair relationships, "Maintenon", "maintenait", "maintenance", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is maintenant, spelled M-A-I-N-T-E-N-A-N-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    À l’instant présent ou dans la période de temps actuelle plus ou moins étendue.
  2. 2
    À partir de cet instant ; désormais ; dorénavant ^([1]).
  3. 3
    Néanmoins, quoiqu’il en soit, par contre.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Dans ma tente même, aux endroits qui ne sont pas constamment piétinés, sous mon lit, dans les coins, il y a maintenant tout un jardinet d’herbes vertes et de fleurettes multicolores.
  2. Les voix se font maintenant plus gutturales et plus rauques.

Synonyms

actuellementà présentà cette heureaujourd’huiau temps où nous sommesororesprésentementméshui

This word in other languages

now(English)ahora(Español)jetzt(Deutsch)agora(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • amintenant
  • mainetnant
  • mainntenant
  • mainteannt
  • maintenannt
  • maintenantt
  • maintenatn
  • maintennant
  • maintennat
  • maintneant
  • mainttenant
  • maitnenant
  • manitenant
  • miantenant
  • mmaintenant

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

amintenant2mainetnant2mainntenant1mainteannt2maintenannt1maintenantt1maintenatn2maintennant1
Edit distance from "maintenant"

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 "maintenant"?
"maintenant" is spelled M-A-I-N-T-E-N-A-N-T. The IPA pronunciation is \mɛ̃t.nɑ̃\.
What does "maintenant" mean?
As an adverb, "maintenant" means: À l’instant présent ou dans la période de temps actuelle plus ou moins étendue.
What words are commonly confused with "maintenant"?
"maintenant" is commonly confused with "Maintenon", "maintenait", "maintenance". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "maintenant"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "maintenant" is \mɛ̃t.nɑ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "maintenant" come from?
"maintenant" 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 "maintenant", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

entreprise#452population#545comprendre#600conditions#610

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (15 here; floor ≥5).

longtemps15 variantsrésultats15 variantsproduction15 variantsproblèmes15 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list