paternalisme

\pa.tɛʁ.na.lism\

/\pa.tɛʁ.na.lism\/ noun

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

The verdict

“paternalisme” is uncommon French (frequency #51,650 among 6,826 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#51,650
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Attitude, volontaire ou involontaire, consciente ou non, qui consiste à se conduire comme un père envers d’autres adultes sur lesquels on exerce ou tente d’exercer une autorité d’un ordre parental.

Corpus desk

Index FR-paternalisme · paternalisme · French

paternalisme · rank #51,650 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #51,650
  • LEN-MEGA 12 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH parthes

Nearest frequency peer: parthes (-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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « paternalisme »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « paternalisme » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for paternalisme
PropertyValue
Headwordpaternalisme
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pa.tɛʁ.na.lism\
Letters12
Frequency rank#51,650
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « paternalisme » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).paternalismetombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « parthes » (#51,649), « pavane » (#51,651), « parry » (#51,648). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « paternalisme » est au #51,650. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

paternalisme is uncommon French at frequency #51,650 among 6,826 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \pa.tɛʁ.na.lism\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Attitude, volontaire ou involontaire, consciente ou non, qui consiste à se conduire comme un père envers d’autres adultes sur lesquels on exerce ou tente d’exercer une autorité d’un ordre parental.".

No generated misspelling entries exist for paternalisme in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is paternalisme, spelled P-A-T-E-R-N-A-L-I-S-M-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Attitude, volontaire ou involontaire, consciente ou non, qui consiste à se conduire comme un père envers d’autres adultes sur lesquels on exerce ou tente d’exercer une autorité d’un ordre parental.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Plusieurs entreprises aux XIXᵉ et XXᵉ siècles ont développé un paternalisme qui, bien souvent, apportait aux ouvriers un certain nombre d’avantages sociaux en plus de leur offrir un emploi comme l’éducation, le logement, les soins médicaux, etc., avantages bien peu répandus alors.
  2. Mais la palme du paternalisme revient à cet homme qui a rejeté leur projet sous prétexte que, deux ans plus tard, elles auraient envie d’un enfant.

Antonyms

infantilisme

This word in other languages

paternalism(English)

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 "paternalisme"?
"paternalisme" is spelled P-A-T-E-R-N-A-L-I-S-M-E. The IPA pronunciation is \pa.tɛʁ.na.lism\.
What does "paternalisme" mean?
As a noun, "paternalisme" means: Attitude, volontaire ou involontaire, consciente ou non, qui consiste à se conduire comme un père envers d’autres adultes sur lesquels on exerce ou tente d’exercer une autorité d’un ordre parental.
How do you pronounce "paternalisme"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "paternalisme" is \pa.tɛʁ.na.lism\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "paternalisme" come from?
"paternalisme" 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 "paternalisme", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 12 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

polyéthylène#51,666moustiquaire#51,617matérialisée#51,601reprochaient#51,703

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list