pénates

\pe.nat\

/\pe.nat\/ adj

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

The verdict

“pénates” is uncommon French (frequency #60,308 among 6,826 “P” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#60,308
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qualifie les dieux protecteurs du foyer auxquels, chez les Romains, on rendait un culte domestique.

Corpus desk

Index FR-penates · pénates · French

pénates · rank #60,308 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #60,308
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH pédiatres

Nearest frequency peer: pédiatres (-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 « pénates »

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 « pénates » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for pénates
PropertyValue
Headwordpénates
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\pe.nat\
Letters7
Frequency rank#60,308
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « pénates » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).pénatestombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « pédiatres » (#60,307), « péristyle » (#60,309), « puppy » (#60,306). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « pénates » est au #60,308. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

pénates is uncommon French at frequency #60,308 among 6,826 “P” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \pe.nat\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Qualifie les dieux protecteurs du foyer auxquels, chez les Romains, on rendait un culte domestique.".

No generated misspelling entries exist for pénates in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our dataset records no confusable match here, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is pénates, spelled P-É-N-A-T-E-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qualifie les dieux protecteurs du foyer auxquels, chez les Romains, on rendait un culte domestique.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Les dieux pénates.

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 "pénates"?
"pénates" is spelled P-É-N-A-T-E-S. The IPA pronunciation is \pe.nat\.
What does "pénates" mean?
As an adjective, "pénates" means: Qualifie les dieux protecteurs du foyer auxquels, chez les Romains, on rendait un culte domestique.
How do you pronounce "pénates"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "pénates" is \pe.nat\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "pénates" come from?
"pénates" 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 "pénates", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

quintet#60,312Prigent#60,297ratchet#60,323Redding#60,331

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list