octave

/\ɔk.tav\/ noun

Letters

6 characters

Frequency Rank

#15,698

in French word usage

Misspellings

8

tracked variants

Confusables

4

similar word pairs

octave is aFrenchnoun. It means: Huitaine, espace de huit jours consacré, dans l’église romaine, à solenniser quelque grande fête. Pronounced \ɔk.tav\. Often confused with otage and octavia.

Key facts for octave
PropertyValue
Headwordoctave
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ɔk.tav\
Letters6
Frequency rank#15,698
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs4
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of octave in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for octave is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ɔk.tav\. Corpus data places it at rank #15,698 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 12 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for octave, with forms such as "cotave", "ocatve", and "occtave". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "otage", "octavia", "océane", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is octave, spelled O-C-T-A-V-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Huitaine, espace de huit jours consacré, dans l’église romaine, à solenniser quelque grande fête.
  2. 2
    Dernier jour de l’octave, qui correspond, comme jour de la semaine, à la fête qu’on célèbre.
  3. 3
    Huitaine, durée de huit jours.
  4. 4
    Intervalle de huit degrés.
  5. 5
    Consonance que font deux notes éloignées l’une de l’autre de huit degrés, les deux extrêmes comprises.
  6. 6
    Huit notes comprises dans cet intervalle.
  7. 7
    Large intervalle entre deux éléments.
  8. 8
    Gamme, mode.
  9. 9
    Stance de huit vers employées dans la poésie italienne, espagnole et portugaise.
  10. 10
    À un niveau différent (supérieur ou inférieur).
  11. 11
    Huitième position de l’épée, que l’on tient le poignet en supination.
  12. 12
    En joaillerie c’est la huitième partie d’un marc soit 30,59 grammes, en draperie c’est la huitième partie d’une aune soit presque 14 centimètres.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: cotave,ocatve,occtave,octaev,octavve,octtave,octvae,otcave

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for octave

Misspelling Variants of "octave"

cotave6ocatve6occtave7octaev6octavve7octtave7octvae6otcave6
Misspelling Variants of "octave"

Frequency rank: #15,698 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "octave"?
"octave" is spelled O-C-T-A-V-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ɔk.tav\.
What does "octave" mean?
As a noun, "octave" means: Huitaine, espace de huit jours consacré, dans l’église romaine, à solenniser quelque grande fête.
What words are commonly confused with "octave"?
"octave" is commonly confused with "otage", "octavia", "océane". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "octave"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "octave" is \ɔk.tav\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "octave" come from?
"octave" 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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter O in our French index:

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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.