nadir
\na.diʁ\
The verdict
“nadir” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #44,595 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #44,595
- frequency rank, French
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 19
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Point situé sous l’observateur en suivant la verticale tirée du point où il se tient et passant par le centre de la Terre, ou dirigée dans le sens de la gravitation.
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 | nadir |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \na.diʁ\ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #44,595 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 19 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “nadir” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for nadir is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \na.diʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #44,595 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for nadir, with forms such as "andir", "naddir", and "nadirr". 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 19 confusable-pair relationships, "nai", "noir", "nazi", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is nadir, spelled N-A-D-I-R.
Definition
- 1Point situé sous l’observateur en suivant la verticale tirée du point où il se tient et passant par le centre de la Terre, ou dirigée dans le sens de la gravitation.
- 2Valeur la plus basse dans une série.
- 3Pire moment ; moment où il y a le moins d’espoir.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: andir,naddir,nadirr,nadri,naidr,ndair,nnadir
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of nadir - 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.
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
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Using “nadir”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is N-A-D-I-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \na.diʁ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “nai” - see the side-by-side comparison. nadir vs nai
- 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.