ouvrir

/\u.vʁiʁ\/ verb

Letters

6 characters

Frequency Rank

#1,186

in French word usage

Misspellings

8

tracked variants

Confusables

11

similar word pairs

ouvrir is aFrenchverb. It means: Faire que ce qui était clos, fermé, ne le soit plus. Pronounced \u.vʁiʁ\. It ranks #1,186 in French word frequency. Often confused with ouvrira and ouvrirent.

Key facts for ouvrir
PropertyValue
Headwordouvrir
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\u.vʁiʁ\
Letters6
Frequency rank#1,186
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs11
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for ouvrir is 6 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \u.vʁiʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #1,186 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 15 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 8 documented wrong-spelling variants for ouvrir, with forms such as "ourvir", "ouvirr", and "ouvrirr". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 11 confusable-pair relationships, "ouvrira", "ouvrirent", "ouvre", 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 ouvrir, spelled O-U-V-R-I-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Faire que ce qui était clos, fermé, ne le soit plus.
  2. 2
    Donner accès — Note d’usage : Il est alors suivi d’un adverbe de lieu.
  3. 3
    Accueillir dans, recevoir dans.
  4. 4
    Écarter ce qui est replié, ce qui est joint ; déployer.
  5. 5
    Entamer, fendre, couper ou percer quelque chose.
  6. 6
    Pratiquer une ouverture, une percée.
  7. 7
    Commencer à creuser, à fouiller.
  8. 8
    ou Rendre une chose accessible, en faciliter l’abord, le passage, l’occupation.
  9. 9
    Commencer ; mettre en route ; débuter.
  10. 10
    Se confier à quelqu’un, lui déclarer ce qu’on pense sur quelque chose.
  11. 11
    Devenir ou être ouvert.
  12. 12
    Avoir son issue ou son débouché.
  13. 13
    Se blesser.
  14. 14
    Éclore, en parlant d'une fleur ou d'un bourgeon.
  15. 15
    Diminuer le couvert et, ce faisant, augmenter la quantité de lumière atteignant le sol et les troncs.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: ourvir,ouvirr,ouvrirr,ouvrri,ouvrrir,ouvvrir,ovurir,uovrir

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for ouvrir

Misspelling Variants of "ouvrir"

ourvir6ouvirr6ouvrirr7ouvrri6ouvrrir7ouvvrir7ovurir6uovrir6
Misspelling Variants of "ouvrir"

Frequency rank: #1,186 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "ouvrir"?
"ouvrir" is spelled O-U-V-R-I-R. The IPA pronunciation is \u.vʁiʁ\.
What does "ouvrir" mean?
As a verb, "ouvrir" means: Faire que ce qui était clos, fermé, ne le soit plus.
What words are commonly confused with "ouvrir"?
"ouvrir" is commonly confused with "ouvrira", "ouvrirent", "ouvre". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "ouvrir"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "ouvrir" is \u.vʁiʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "ouvrir" come from?
"ouvrir" 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:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.