pénitence

\pe.ni.tɑ̃s\

/\pe.ni.tɑ̃s\/ noun

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

The verdict

“pénitence” has 14 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #23,326. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#23,326
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords
14
tracked misspellings
2
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Repentir suivi d’expiation, regret d’avoir offensé Dieu.

Corpus desk

Index FR-penitence · pénitence · French

pénitence · rank #23,326 · 14 variants · 2 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #23,326
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 2 pairs
  • VAR-HIGH 14 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH qqch

Nearest frequency peer: qqch (+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 « pénitence »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « pénitence » 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).

pénitence vs pénitents
78% similar
pénitence vs pénitencier
82% similar

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

Key facts for pénitence
PropertyValue
Headwordpénitence
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pe.ni.tɑ̃s\
Letters9
Frequency rank#23,326
Misspellings tracked14
Confusable pairs2
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « pénitence »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).pénitencese place ici:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « qqch » (#23,327), « psaumes » (#23,324), « quad » (#23,328). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « pénitence » est au #23,326. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 14 spelling variants around pénitence (IPA \pe.ni.tɑ̃s\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #23,326 among 6,826 “P” headwords. Wiktionary lists 6 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 14 likely wrong-spelling variants for pénitence, with forms such as "penitence", "pnéitence", and "ppénitence". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "pénitents", "pénitencier", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is pénitence, spelled P-É-N-I-T-E-N-C-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Repentir suivi d’expiation, regret d’avoir offensé Dieu.
  2. 2
    Ce que le prêtre ordonne en satisfaction des péchés que l’on lui a confessés.
  3. 3
    Austérités qu’on s’impose volontairement pour l’expiation de ses péchés.
  4. 4
    Mauvaise chère.
  5. 5
    Punition imposée pour quelque faute.
  6. 6
    Peine qu’on impose à ceux qui ont manqué aux règles, aux conventions, ou qui n’ont pas deviné quelque chose, qui ont mal répondu.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. La pénitence est une vertu chrétienne.
  2. Une pénitence tardive.

This word in other languages

penance(English)penitencia(Español)Buße(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • penitence
  • pnéitence
  • ppénitence
  • péintence
  • pénietnce
  • pénitecne
  • pénitencce
  • pénitenec
  • pénitennce
  • pénitnece
  • pénittence
  • pénnitence
  • péntience
  • épnitence

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

penitence1pnéitence2ppénitence1péintence2pénietnce2pénitecne2pénitencce1pénitenec2
Edit distance from "pénitence"

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 "pénitence"?
"pénitence" is spelled P-É-N-I-T-E-N-C-E. The IPA pronunciation is \pe.ni.tɑ̃s\.
What does "pénitence" mean?
As a noun, "pénitence" means: Repentir suivi d’expiation, regret d’avoir offensé Dieu.
What words are commonly confused with "pénitence"?
"pénitence" is commonly confused with "pénitents", "pénitencier". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "pénitence"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "pénitence" is \pe.ni.tɑ̃s\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "pénitence" come from?
"pénitence" 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 "pénitence", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

populisme#23,317plomberie#23,313recrutent#23,339rejoindra#23,340

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (14 here; floor ≥5).

Pentecôte14 variantsressembles14 variantssignataire14 variantssollicités14 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list