opium

\ɔ.pjɔm\

/\ɔ.pjɔm\/ noun

The verdict

“opium” has 6 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #17,779. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#17,779
frequency rank, French
1,642
“O” headwords
6
tracked misspellings
5
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Suc de plusieurs espèces de pavots, notamment le pavot somnifère (Papaver somniferum) qui a des propriétés narcotiques.

Corpus desk

Index FR-opium · opium · French

opium · rank #17,779 · 6 variants · 5 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #17,779
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 5 pairs
  • VAR-MID 6 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,642
  • PHOTO-FINISH ongle

Nearest frequency peer: ongle (-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 « opium »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « opium » 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).

opium vs oum
60% similar
opium vs opus
60% similar
opium vs optimum
71% similar

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

Key facts for opium
PropertyValue
Headwordopium
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ɔ.pjɔm\
Letters5
Frequency rank#17,779
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs5
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « opium »

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

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « ongle » (#17,778), « opérationnels » (#17,780), « ouin » (#17,781). Parmi 1,642 lemmes en « O », « opium » est au #17,779. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 6 spelling variants around opium (IPA \ɔ.pjɔm\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #17,779 among 1,642 “O” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for opium, with forms such as "oipum", "opimu", and "opiumm". 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 5 confusable-pair relationships, "oum", "opus", "optimum", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is opium, spelled O-P-I-U-M.

Definition

  1. 1
    Suc de plusieurs espèces de pavots, notamment le pavot somnifère (Papaver somniferum) qui a des propriétés narcotiques.
  2. 2
    Ce qui engourdit l’esprit, substitue le rêve à la réalité.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. L’opium absorbe toutes les forces humaines, il les rassemble sur un point, il les prend, les carre ou les cube, les porte à je ne sais quelle puissance, et donne à l’être entier toute une création dans le vide. Il fait rendre à chaque sens sa plus grande somme de volupté, l’irrite, le fatigue, l’use ; aussi l’opium est-il une mort calculée.
  2. Comme tous les grands voluptueux, il est amoureux de l’impossible ; il voudrait s’élancer, dans les régions idéales, à la recherche de la beauté sans défaut ; l’ivresse ne lui suffit pas, il lui faut l’extase ; à l’aide de l’opium, il tâche de dénouer les liens qui enchaînent l’âme au corps ; il demande à l’hallucination ce que la réalité lui refuse.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • oipum
  • opimu
  • opiumm
  • oppium
  • opuim
  • poium

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

oipum2opimu2opiumm1oppium1opuim2poium2
Edit distance from "opium"

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 "opium"?
"opium" is spelled O-P-I-U-M. The IPA pronunciation is \ɔ.pjɔm\.
What does "opium" mean?
As a noun, "opium" means: Suc de plusieurs espèces de pavots, notamment le pavot somnifère (Papaver somniferum) qui a des propriétés narcotiques.
What words are commonly confused with "opium"?
"opium" is commonly confused with "oum", "opus", "optimum". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "opium"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "opium" is \ɔ.pjɔm\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "opium" come from?
"opium" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "opium", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list