perdre
\pɛʁdʁ\
The verdict
“perdre” is in the everyday core of French, ranked #794 in French word frequency and used as a verb.
- #794
- frequency rank, French
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Être privé de quelque chose qu’on avait, qu’on possédait.
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 | perdre |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \pɛʁdʁ\ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #794 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “perdre” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for perdre is 6 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \pɛʁdʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #794 in overall French word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 20 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for perdre, with forms such as "eprdre", "pedrre", and "perddre". 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, "père", "perdu", "perte", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is perdre, spelled P-E-R-D-R-E.
Definition
- 1Être privé de quelque chose qu’on avait, qu’on possédait.
- 2Être privé d’un avantage ou d’un profit.
- 3Être privé, par la mort ou autrement, d’une personne qu’on aimait, qu’on a sujet de regretter.
- 4Être privé de quelque partie de soi, subir la perte ou la diminution sensible de quelque faculté, de quelque avantage physique ou moral que l’on possédait.
- 5Être privé de quelque partie de soi, subir la perte ou la diminution sensible de quelque faculté, de quelque avantage physique ou moral que l’on possédait.
- 6Cesser d’avoir, n’avoir plus.
- 7Cesser de suivre ou d’occuper, laisser échapper ou laisser prendre.
- 8Égarer un objet, ne plus savoir où il est.
- 9Laisser quelqu’un s’égarer ou l’égarer ; le détourner de sa route.
- 10Embrouiller l'esprit, ne plus rien comprendre.
- 11Faire un mauvais emploi, un emploi inutile de quelque chose, manquer à en profiter.
- 12Être vaincu en quelque chose par un autre, avoir du désavantage contre quelqu’un ou quelque chose.
- 13Ne pas obtenir le gain, le profit, l’avantage qu’on désirait ou qu’on espérait.
- 14Vendre moins cher qu’on a acheté, en parlant d'une marchandise.
- 15Diminuer de valeur, de qualité.
- 16Ruiner, déshonorer, discréditer; causer du préjudice à la fortune de quelqu’un, à sa réputation, à sa santé, etc.
- 17Gâter l’esprit, le jugement; Corrompre les mœurs, débaucher.
- 18Gâter, endommager quelque chose.
- 19Ne pas entendre, ne pas voir.
- 20Être séparé de (quelqu'un de proche) par la mort.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: eprdre,pedrre,perddre,perder,perdrre,perrde,perrdre,pperdre,predre
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of perdre - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "perdre"?
What does "perdre" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "perdre"?
How do you pronounce "perdre"?
What language does "perdre" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “perdre”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is P-E-R-D-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \pɛʁdʁ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “père” - see the side-by-side comparison. perdre vs père
- 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.