patient

\pa.sjɑ̃\

/\pa.sjɑ̃\/ adj

The verdict

“patient” has 10 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #3,027. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#3,027
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords
10
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui attend et qui persévère avec tranquillité.

Corpus desk

Index FR-patient · patient · French

patient · rank #3,027 · 10 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #3,027
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 10 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH olympique

Nearest frequency peer: olympique (-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 « patient »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « patient » 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).

patient vs patin
71% similar
patient vs payent
71% similar
patient vs patins
71% similar

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

Key facts for patient
PropertyValue
Headwordpatient
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\pa.sjɑ̃\
Letters7
Frequency rank#3,027
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « patient »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.patientse 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 « olympique » (#3,026), « paye » (#3,028), « occupé » (#3,025). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « patient » est au #3,027. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 10 spelling variants around patient (IPA \pa.sjɑ̃\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #3,027 among 6,826 “P” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for patient, with forms such as "aptient", "paitent", and "pateint". 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, "patin", "payent", "patins", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is patient, spelled P-A-T-I-E-N-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui attend et qui persévère avec tranquillité.
  2. 2
    Qui supporte, qui tolère avec bonté, avec douceur les défauts, les importunités d’autrui.
  3. 3
    Qui reçoit l’impression d’un agent physique.
  4. 4
    Qui souffre avec modération et sans murmurer les adversités, les injures, les mauvais traitements, etc.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Apprends à être modeste et patient et à t’humilier. Si ton jour te semble plus long que celui de l’éphémère, pour moi, qui n’ai ni commencement ni fin, ce n’en est pas moins qu’un instant.
  2. Et ce fut par cette invariable réponse qu’il accueillit toutes les parlementaires juponnées que, patiente et persévérante, sa femme persistait à lui dépêcher d’heure en heure sous des prétextes, semblait-il, de plus en plus urgents.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • aptient
  • paitent
  • pateint
  • patiennt
  • patientt
  • patietn
  • patinet
  • pattient
  • ppatient
  • ptaient

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of patient - 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.

aptient2paitent2pateint2patiennt1patientt1patietn2patinet2pattient1
Edit distance from "patient"

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 "patient"?
"patient" is spelled P-A-T-I-E-N-T. The IPA pronunciation is \pa.sjɑ̃\.
What does "patient" mean?
As an adjective, "patient" means: Qui attend et qui persévère avec tranquillité.
What words are commonly confused with "patient"?
"patient" is commonly confused with "patin", "payent", "patins". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "patient"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "patient" is \pa.sjɑ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "patient" come from?
"patient" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "patient", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (10 here; floor ≥5).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list