para

\pa.ʁa\

/\pa.ʁa\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“para” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #12,631) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#12,631
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Parachutiste.

Corpus desk

Index FR-para · para · French

para · rank #12,631 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #12,631
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH pans

Nearest frequency peer: pans (-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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « para »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « para » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

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).

para vs Pr
25% similar
para vs pas
50% similar
para vs pro
50% similar

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

Key facts for para
PropertyValue
Headwordpara
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pa.ʁa\
Letters4
Frequency rank#12,631
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « para »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).parase place ici:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « pans » (#12,630), « paroisses » (#12,632), « palier » (#12,629). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « para » est au #12,631. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for para is neighbouring look-alikes ("Pr", "pas", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \pa.ʁa\. Frequency #12,631 among 6,826 “P” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for para, with forms such as "apra", "paar", and "ppara". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Pr", "pas", "pro", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is para, spelled P-A-R-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    Parachutiste.
  2. 2
    Paramilitaire.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. « Quarante-trois jours chez les paras. Excuse-moi, j’ai encore du mal à parler ils m’ont brûlé la langue », et il me montra sa langue tailladée.
  2. Soldats des autres ethnies, je ne vous fais pas moindre part de ma confiance ; je sais que l’armée dans son ensemble m’est fidèle, comme à son chef légitime, et Mokutu n’a pu réussir son mauvais coup qu’en soudoyant non pas l’armée, mais un bataillon de paras gavés grassement et traités prétoriennement à l’hôtel Memling, partie grâce aux pourboires améric…

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • apra
  • paar
  • ppara
  • praa

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

apra2paar2ppara1praa2
Edit distance from "para"

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 "para"?
"para" is spelled P-A-R-A. The IPA pronunciation is \pa.ʁa\.
What does "para" mean?
As a noun, "para" means: Parachutiste.
What words are commonly confused with "para"?
"para" is commonly confused with "Pr", "pas", "pro". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "para"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "para" is \pa.ʁa\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "para" come from?
"para" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "para", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

pans#12,630nets#12,623péri#12,649loto#12,612

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list