maternelle

\ma.tɛʁ.nɛl\

/\ma.tɛʁ.nɛl\/ noun

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

The verdict

“maternelle” has 13 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #4,426. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#4,426
frequency rank, French
5,038
“M” headwords
13
tracked misspellings
5
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - École ou niveau d'une école regroupant les jeunes enfants d’âge préscolaire.

Corpus desk

Index FR-maternelle · maternelle · French

maternelle · rank #4,426 · 13 variants · 5 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #4,426
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 5 pairs
  • VAR-HIGH 13 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,038
  • PHOTO-FINISH Lee

Nearest frequency peer: Lee (-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 « maternelle »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « maternelle » 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).

maternelle vs maternels
80% similar
maternelle vs maternelles
91% similar
maternelle vs maternel
80% similar

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

Key facts for maternelle
PropertyValue
Headwordmaternelle
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ma.tɛʁ.nɛl\
Letters10
Frequency rank#4,426
Misspellings tracked13
Confusable pairs5
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « maternelle »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).maternellese 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 « Lee » (#4,425), « modification » (#4,427), « habitant » (#4,424). Parmi 5,038 lemmes en « M », « maternelle » est au #4,426. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 13 spelling variants around maternelle (IPA \ma.tɛʁ.nɛl\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #4,426 among 5,038 “M” headwords. Dominant gloss: "École ou niveau d'une école regroupant les jeunes enfants d’âge préscolaire.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 13 likely wrong-spelling variants for maternelle, with forms such as "amternelle", "maetrnelle", and "matenrelle". 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 5 confusable-pair relationships, "maternels", "maternelles", "maternel", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is maternelle, spelled M-A-T-E-R-N-E-L-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    École ou niveau d'une école regroupant les jeunes enfants d’âge préscolaire.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. À huit heures, elle le dépose à la maternelle, à deux rues de son deux-pièces de Faidherbe-Chaligny.
  2. Retourne à la maternelle, lui a crié Tiennette Jacquot.

Synonyms

école maternellematernuche

This word in other languages

kindergarten(English)parvulario(Español)Vorschule(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • amternelle
  • maetrnelle
  • matenrelle
  • materenlle
  • maternele
  • maternelel
  • maternlele
  • maternnelle
  • materrnelle
  • matrenelle
  • matternelle
  • mmaternelle
  • mtaernelle

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of maternelle - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

amternelle2maetrnelle2matenrelle2materenlle2maternele1maternelel2maternlele2maternnelle1
Edit distance from "maternelle"

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 "maternelle"?
"maternelle" is spelled M-A-T-E-R-N-E-L-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ma.tɛʁ.nɛl\.
What does "maternelle" mean?
As a noun, "maternelle" means: École ou niveau d'une école regroupant les jeunes enfants d’âge préscolaire.
What words are commonly confused with "maternelle"?
"maternelle" is commonly confused with "maternels", "maternelles", "maternel". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "maternelle"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "maternelle" is \ma.tɛʁ.nɛl\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "maternelle" come from?
"maternelle" 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 "maternelle", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

précédents#4,437québécoise#4,440domination#4,483permanente#4,360

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (13 here; floor ≥5).

cherchez13 variantsblanches13 variantsuniversel13 variantschanteuse13 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list