parfum

/\paʁ.fœ̃\/ noun

Letters

6 characters

Frequency Rank

#4,697

in French word usage

Misspellings

9

tracked variants

Confusables

6

similar word pairs

parfum is aFrenchnoun. It means: Odeur aromatique, agréable, plus ou moins forte, plus ou moins subtile et suave, qui s’exhale d’une substance quelconque et particulièrement des fleurs. Pronounced \paʁ.fœ̃\. It ranks #4,697 in French word frequency. Often confused with paru and parue.

Key facts for parfum
PropertyValue
Headwordparfum
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\paʁ.fœ̃\
Letters6
Frequency rank#4,697
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs6
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

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

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for parfum is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \paʁ.fœ̃\. Corpus data places it at rank #4,697 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 Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 9 documented wrong-spelling variants for parfum, with forms such as "aprfum", "pafrum", and "parffum". 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 6 confusable-pair relationships, "paru", "parue", "parus", 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 parfum, spelled P-A-R-F-U-M, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Odeur aromatique, agréable, plus ou moins forte, plus ou moins subtile et suave, qui s’exhale d’une substance quelconque et particulièrement des fleurs.
  2. 2
    Produit industriel ou artisanal, extrait de certaines fleurs ou obtenus par des procédés chimiques, et dont il s’exhale une odeur agréable.
  3. 3
    Lors des épisodes de peste à la fin du XVIIᵉ siècle, fumigation utilisée pour préserver ou désinfecter les maisons de la maladie.
  4. 4
    Effet subtil et durable d’une réalité agréable.
  5. 5
    Rappel ; ressemblance.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: aprfum,pafrum,parffum,parfmu,parfumm,parrfum,parufm,pparfum,prafum

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for parfum

Misspelling Variants of "parfum"

aprfum6pafrum6parffum7parfmu6parfumm7parrfum7parufm6pparfum7
Misspelling Variants of "parfum"

Frequency rank: #4,697 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "parfum"?
"parfum" is spelled P-A-R-F-U-M. The IPA pronunciation is \paʁ.fœ̃\.
What does "parfum" mean?
As a noun, "parfum" means: Odeur aromatique, agréable, plus ou moins forte, plus ou moins subtile et suave, qui s’exhale d’une substance quelconque et particulièrement des fleurs.
What words are commonly confused with "parfum"?
"parfum" is commonly confused with "paru", "parue", "parus". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "parfum"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "parfum" is \paʁ.fœ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "parfum" come from?
"parfum" 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 P 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.