obligation
\ɔ.bli.ɡa.sjɔ̃\
The verdict
“obligation” is a regularly-used French word, ranked #2,687 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #2,687
- frequency rank, French
- 10
- letters
- 14
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Lien moral qui impose quelque devoir concernant la religion, la morale ou la vie civile.
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 | obligation |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ɔ.bli.ɡa.sjɔ̃\ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #2,687 |
| Misspellings tracked | 14 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “obligation” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for obligation is 10 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ɔ.bli.ɡa.sjɔ̃\. Corpus data places it at rank #2,687 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 14 likely wrong-spelling variants for obligation, with forms such as "boligation", "obbligation", and "obilgation". 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 1 confusable-pair relationship, "obligations", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, 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 obligation, spelled O-B-L-I-G-A-T-I-O-N.
Definition
- 1Lien moral qui impose quelque devoir concernant la religion, la morale ou la vie civile.
- 2Lien de droit qui oblige à donner, à faire ou à ne pas faire une chose.
- 3Acte, fait par-devant notaire ou sous seing privé, par lequel on s’oblige à payer une certaine somme, à donner ou à faire telle chose dans un temps fixé.
- 4Titres productifs d’intérêt et remboursables dans un temps limité, que le gouvernement, des compagnies, des villes émettent pour se procurer de l’argent.
- 5Lien de reconnaissance envers les personnes qui nous ont rendu des services plus ou moins importants.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: boligation,obbligation,obilgation,oblgiation,obliagtion,obligaiton,obligatino,obligationn,obligatoin,obligattion,obliggation,obligtaion,oblligation,olbigation
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of obligation - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "obligation"?
What does "obligation" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "obligation"?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “obligation”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is O-B-L-I-G-A-T-I-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ɔ.bli.ɡa.sjɔ̃\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “obligations” - see the side-by-side comparison. obligation vs obligations
- 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.