pathos

\pa.tɔs\

/\pa.tɔs\/ noun

The verdict

“pathos” has 9 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #38,968. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#38,968
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords
9
tracked misspellings
9
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Chaleur, emphase affectée, confuse et vaine dans un discours, dans un ouvrage littéraire.

Corpus desk

Index FR-pathos · pathos · French

pathos · rank #38,968 · 9 variants · 9 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #38,968
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 9 pairs
  • VAR-MID 9 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH pastille

Nearest frequency peer: pastille (-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 « pathos »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « pathos » 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).

pathos vs patron
67% similar
pathos vs pattes
67% similar
pathos vs python
67% similar

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

Key facts for pathos
PropertyValue
Headwordpathos
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pa.tɔs\
Letters6
Frequency rank#38,968
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs9
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « pathos »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).pathosse 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 « pastille » (#38,967), « Patti » (#38,969), « parures » (#38,966). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « pathos » est au #38,968. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 9 spelling variants around pathos (IPA \pa.tɔs\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #38,968 among 6,826 “P” headwords. Dominant gloss: "Chaleur, emphase affectée, confuse et vaine dans un discours, dans un ouvrage littéraire.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for pathos, with forms such as "apthos", "pahtos", and "pathhos". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 9 confusable-pair relationships, "patron", "pattes", "python", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is pathos, spelled P-A-T-H-O-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Chaleur, emphase affectée, confuse et vaine dans un discours, dans un ouvrage littéraire.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Modeste m’a dit que tout ce pathos venait du traducteur et qu’il fallait lire l’anglais. Mais, je n’irai pas apprendre l’anglais pour lord Byron.
  2. Au milieu du pathos prétentieux qui a envahi, de nos jours, l’apologétique chrétienne, s’est conservée une école de solide doctrine, répudiant l’éclat, abhorrant le succès.

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • apthos
  • pahtos
  • pathhos
  • pathoss
  • pathso
  • patohs
  • patthos
  • ppathos
  • ptahos

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of pathos - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

apthos2pahtos2pathhos1pathoss1pathso2patohs2patthos1ppathos1
Edit distance from "pathos"

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 "pathos"?
"pathos" is spelled P-A-T-H-O-S. The IPA pronunciation is \pa.tɔs\.
What does "pathos" mean?
As a noun, "pathos" means: Chaleur, emphase affectée, confuse et vaine dans un discours, dans un ouvrage littéraire.
What words are commonly confused with "pathos"?
"pathos" is commonly confused with "patron", "pattes", "python". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "pathos"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "pathos" is \pa.tɔs\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "pathos" come from?
"pathos" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "pathos", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list