menace

\mə.nas\

/\mə.nas\/ noun

The verdict

“menace” has 8 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #2,087. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#2,087
frequency rank, French
5,038
“M” headwords
8
tracked misspellings
19
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Parole ou geste pour marquer sa colère, son ressentiment et pour faire craindre le mal qu’on prépare.

Corpus desk

Index FR-menace · menace · French

menace · rank #2,087 · 8 variants · 19 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #2,087
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 19 pairs
  • VAR-MID 8 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,038
  • PHOTO-FINISH locale

Nearest frequency peer: locale (-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 « menace »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « menace » 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).

menace vs mené
50% similar
menace vs menée
67% similar
menace vs mince
67% similar

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

Key facts for menace
PropertyValue
Headwordmenace
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\mə.nas\
Letters6
Frequency rank#2,087
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs19
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « menace »

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

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « locale » (#2,086), « mettent » (#2,088), « islam » (#2,085). Parmi 5,038 lemmes en « M », « menace » est au #2,087. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 8 spelling variants around menace (IPA \mə.nas\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #2,087 among 5,038 “M” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for menace, with forms such as "emnace", "meance", and "menacce". 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 19 confusable-pair relationships, "mené", "menée", "mince", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is menace, spelled M-E-N-A-C-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Parole ou geste pour marquer sa colère, son ressentiment et pour faire craindre le mal qu’on prépare.
  2. 2
    Signes, pronostics qui font craindre quelque chose.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Mais c'est toujours en vain qu'ils somment les Charitois de chasser leur garnison: leurs menaces armées n'ont pas plus d'effet que leurs menaces écrites : toutes leurs démarches viennent se briser contre une inébranlable résolution.
  2. Les deux Allemands le tenaient sous la menace de leurs yeux haineux. Pendant un moment Bert vit la mort proche.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • emnace
  • meance
  • menacce
  • menaec
  • mencae
  • mennace
  • mmenace
  • mneace

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

emnace2meance2menacce1menaec2mencae2mennace1mmenace1mneace2
Edit distance from "menace"

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 "menace"?
"menace" is spelled M-E-N-A-C-E. The IPA pronunciation is \mə.nas\.
What does "menace" mean?
As a noun, "menace" means: Parole ou geste pour marquer sa colère, son ressentiment et pour faire craindre le mal qu’on prépare.
What words are commonly confused with "menace"?
"menace" is commonly confused with "mené", "menée", "mince". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "menace"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "menace" is \mə.nas\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "menace" come from?
"menace" 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 "menace", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list