petite

/\pə.tit\/ noun

Letters

6 characters

Frequency Rank

#290

in French word usage

Misspellings

8

tracked variants

Confusables

19

similar word pairs

petite is aFrenchnoun. It means: Enfant de genre féminin. Pronounced \pə.tit\. It ranks #290 in French word frequency. Often confused with pitié and petits.

Key facts for petite
PropertyValue
Headwordpetite
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pə.tit\
Letters6
Frequency rank#290
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs19
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of petite in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for petite is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \pə.tit\. Corpus data places it at rank #290 in overall French word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 8 documented wrong-spelling variants for petite, with forms such as "eptite", "peitte", and "petiet". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 19 confusable-pair relationships, "pitié", "petits", "petites", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is petite, spelled P-E-T-I-T-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Enfant de genre féminin.
  2. 2
    La plus petite carte d'une couleur ou d'un jeu, souvent l'as ou le un d'atout au tarot.

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: eptite,peitte,petiet,petitte,pettie,pettite,ppetite,pteite

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for petite

Misspelling Variants of "petite"

eptite6peitte6petiet6petitte7pettie6pettite7ppetite7pteite6
Misspelling Variants of "petite"

Frequency rank: #290 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "petite"?
"petite" is spelled P-E-T-I-T-E. The IPA pronunciation is \pə.tit\.
What does "petite" mean?
As a noun, "petite" means: Enfant de genre féminin.
What words are commonly confused with "petite"?
"petite" is commonly confused with "pitié", "petits", "petites". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "petite"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "petite" is \pə.tit\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "petite" come from?
"petite" 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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter P in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.