pessimisme

\pe.si.mism\

/\pe.si.mism\/ noun

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

The verdict

“pessimisme” has 13 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #23,639. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#23,639
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords
13
tracked misspellings
2
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Doctrine philosophique selon laquelle le mal l’emporte sur le bien.

Corpus desk

Index FR-pessimisme · pessimisme · French

pessimisme · rank #23,639 · 13 variants · 2 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #23,639
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 2 pairs
  • VAR-HIGH 13 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH pelouses

Nearest frequency peer: pelouses (-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 « pessimisme »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « pessimisme » 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).

pessimisme vs pessimiste
90% similar
pessimisme vs pessimistes
82% similar

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

Key facts for pessimisme
PropertyValue
Headwordpessimisme
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pe.si.mism\
Letters10
Frequency rank#23,639
Misspellings tracked13
Confusable pairs2
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « pessimisme »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.pessimismese place ici:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « pelouses » (#23,638), « peuplées » (#23,640), « pfff » (#23,641). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « pessimisme » est au #23,639. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 13 spelling variants around pessimisme (IPA \pe.si.mism\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #23,639 among 6,826 “P” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 13 likely wrong-spelling variants for pessimisme, with forms such as "epssimisme", "pesimisme", and "pesismisme". 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, "pessimiste", "pessimistes", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is pessimisme, spelled P-E-S-S-I-M-I-S-M-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Doctrine philosophique selon laquelle le mal l’emporte sur le bien.
  2. 2
    Opinion, état d’esprit, de ceux qui sont portés à croire que tout va mal.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. J’imagine que le pessimisme grec provient de tribus pauvres, guerrières et montagnardes, qui avaient un énorme orgueil aristocratique, mais dont la situation était par contre fort médiocre […]
  2. Vous voulez sans doute dire, monsieur, que la vie est sans but? N'est-ce pas ce qu'on appelle le pessimisme?

Antonyms

optimisme

This word in other languages

pessimism(English)pesimismo(Español)Pessimismus(Deutsch)pessimismo(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • epssimisme
  • pesimisme
  • pesismisme
  • pessiimsme
  • pessimimse
  • pessimisem
  • pessimismme
  • pessimissme
  • pessimmisme
  • pessimsime
  • pessmiisme
  • ppessimisme
  • psesimisme

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

epssimisme2pesimisme1pesismisme2pessiimsme2pessimimse2pessimisem2pessimismme1pessimissme1
Edit distance from "pessimisme"

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 "pessimisme"?
"pessimisme" is spelled P-E-S-S-I-M-I-S-M-E. The IPA pronunciation is \pe.si.mism\.
What does "pessimisme" mean?
As a noun, "pessimisme" means: Doctrine philosophique selon laquelle le mal l’emporte sur le bien.
What words are commonly confused with "pessimisme"?
"pessimisme" is commonly confused with "pessimiste", "pessimistes". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "pessimisme"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "pessimisme" is \pe.si.mism\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "pessimisme" come from?
"pessimisme" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 "pessimisme", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

pratiquées#23,656multipliés#23,617présentons#23,661mobilières#23,613

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (13 here; floor ≥5).

orpheline13 variantsportiques13 variantsnourrissons13 variantsravissante13 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list