patte
\pat\
The verdict
“patte” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #10,206 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #10,206
- frequency rank, French
- 5
- letters
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Membre d’un animal quadrupède, d’un oiseau (à l’exception des oiseaux de proie), des arthropodes comme l’écrevisse, le homard, l’araignée, la mouche, etc.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | patte |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \pat\ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #10,206 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “patte” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for patte is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \pat\. Corpus data places it at rank #10,206 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 11 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for patte, with forms such as "aptte", "patet", and "ppatte". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "PTT", "pote", "paye", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is patte, spelled P-A-T-T-E.
Definition
- 1Membre d’un animal quadrupède, d’un oiseau (à l’exception des oiseaux de proie), des arthropodes comme l’écrevisse, le homard, l’araignée, la mouche, etc.
- 2Main humaine.
- 3Jambe, pied humain.
- 4Se dit de la technique unique d’un artiste, du caractère de son œuvre.
- 5Instrument qui sert à régler du papier à musique, en traçant à la fois les cinq lignes parallèles qui forment une portée.
- 6Racine de certaines plantes, qui a quelque ressemblance avec la patte, la griffe d’un animal.
- 7Chacune des pièces triangulaire qui terminent à ses deux extrémités la partie courbe d’une ancre et qui la font mordre sur le fond.
- 8Morceau de fer pointu d’un bout, et plat de l’autre, qui, par le bout pointu, se fiche dans du bois ou se scelle dans du plâtre et, par l’autre bout, sert à fixer un lambris, un chambranle de porte, un châssis de croisée, etc.
- 9Bande pileuse sur la joue, juste devant les oreilles, conservée lors du rasage.
- 10Interface d'un routeur, généralement un port RJ45.
- 11Meuble représentant la patte d’un animal dans les armoiries. L’animal dont est extraite la patte doit être blasonné. À rapprocher de membre.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: aptte,patet,ppatte,ptate
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of patte - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 "patte"?
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Using “patte”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is P-A-T-T-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \pat\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “PTT” - see the side-by-side comparison. patte vs PTT
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.