mettre au point

\mɛ.tʁ‿o pwɛ̃\

/\mɛ.tʁ‿o pwɛ̃\/ verb

The verdict

“mettre au point” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
15
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Augmenter ou diminuer le tirage de l’objectif, de manière que l’image soit le plus nette possible.

Corpus desk

Index FR-mettre-au-point · mettre au point · French

mettre au point · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 15 letters
  • VOW-6 6 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "M" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

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.

Key facts for mettre au point
PropertyValue
Headwordmettre au point
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\mɛ.tʁ‿o pwɛ̃\
Letters15
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « mettre au point » en français

mettre au pointreste hors des 100.000 mots français les plus fréquents, dans la longue queue du vocabulaire technique, archaïque ou rare, là où le doute d'orthographe frappe.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

mettre au point is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed \mɛ.tʁ‿o pwɛ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for mettre au point, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is mettre au point, spelled M-E-T-T-R-E- -A-U- -P-O-I-N-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Augmenter ou diminuer le tirage de l’objectif, de manière que l’image soit le plus nette possible.
  2. 2
    Amener à l’état voulu ou prévu, en parlant d'une chose.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. […]; je devrais mettre au point cet article sur le tableau de l’Angelico du Louvre que je m’étais engagé à livrer, il y a au moins quatre mois, à la Revue qui me le réclame, chaque matin, par lettre.
  2. Voici, par exemple, l'anglais Baskerville (1706-1775) qui, après avoir été maître d'écriture et graveur de pierres tombales, commence en 1750 à s'occuper de typographie, passe deux ans à dessiner ses caractères et à faire graver ses poinçons et met en même temps au point un procédé de fabrication de papier satiné sans vergeûres — le papier vélin.

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "mettre au point"?
"mettre au point" is spelled M-E-T-T-R-E- -A-U- -P-O-I-N-T. The IPA pronunciation is \mɛ.tʁ‿o pwɛ̃\.
What does "mettre au point" mean?
As a verb, "mettre au point" means: Augmenter ou diminuer le tirage de l’objectif, de manière que l’image soit le plus nette possible.
How do you pronounce "mettre au point"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "mettre au point" is \mɛ.tʁ‿o pwɛ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "mettre au point" come from?
"mettre au point" 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list