père

\pɛʁ\

/\pɛʁ\/ noun

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

The verdict

“père” is in the everyday core of French, ranked #303 in French word frequency and used as a noun.

#303
frequency rank, French
4
letters
6
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Mâle ayant fécondé un ovule qui a donné naissance à un enfant ; géniteur.

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

père vs Pr
25% similar
père vs peu
25% similar
père vs pro
50% similar

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

Key facts for père
PropertyValue
Headwordpère
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pɛʁ\
Letters4
Frequency rank#303
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “père” sits in French frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). père lands here:

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

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for père is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \pɛʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #303 in overall French word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for père, with forms such as "pere", "ppère", and "prèe". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Pr", "peu", "pro", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is père, spelled P-È-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Mâle ayant fécondé un ovule qui a donné naissance à un enfant ; géniteur.
  2. 2
    Individu mâle qui a pris le rôle et la responsabilité paternelle dans la vie d’un enfant.
  3. 3
    (Souvent au pluriel) Ascendant, quel que soit le degré de parenté.
  4. 4
    Celui qui a beaucoup fait pour la prospérité, pour le salut, pour le bonheur d’un peuple ou d’une classe nombreuse de personnes, qui agit envers ceux dont il prend soin comme un père agirait envers ses enfants.
  5. 5
    Père de l’Église.
  6. 6
    Homme ayant inventé ou fait naître une science, un art, une technique.
  7. 7
    Titre donné aux dignitaires des congrégations et des ordres religieux.
  8. 8
    Première personne de la sainte trinité, dans la doctrine chrétienne trinitaire.
  9. 9
    Homme d’un certain âge que l’on traite avec familiarité. Dans certains cas cette appellation peut contenir une nuance de déférence voire d’admiration affectueuse.
  10. 10
    Fête (souvent bachique), apparue dans l’armée pour célébrer un certain nombre de jours avant la quille.

Synonyms

dabedarongéniteurpapapatervieux

This word in other languages

father(English)padre(Español)Vater(Deutsch)pai(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: pere,ppère,prèe,pèer,pèrre,èpre

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of père - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

pere1ppère1prèe2pèer2pèrre1èpre2
Edit distance from "père"

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 "père"?
"père" is spelled P-È-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \pɛʁ\.
What does "père" mean?
As a noun, "père" means: Mâle ayant fécondé un ovule qui a donné naissance à un enfant ; géniteur.
What words are commonly confused with "père"?
"père" is commonly confused with "Pr", "peu", "pro". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "père"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "père" is \pɛʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "père" come from?
"père" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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.

Using “père”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct French spelling is P-È-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as \pɛʁ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • Don't mix it up with “Pr” - see the side-by-side comparison. père vs Pr
  • 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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list