pétrir

\pe.tʁiʁ\

/\pe.tʁiʁ\/ verb

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

The verdict

“pétrir” is uncommon French (frequency #64,721 among 6,826 “P” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#64,721
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Malaxer de la farine détrempée avec de l’eau pour en faire de la pâte.

Corpus desk

Index FR-petrir · pétrir · French

pétrir · rank #64,721 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #64,721
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH quadriceps

Nearest frequency peer: quadriceps (+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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « pétrir »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « pétrir » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for pétrir
PropertyValue
Headwordpétrir
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\pe.tʁiʁ\
Letters6
Frequency rank#64,721
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « pétrir » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.pétrirtombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « quadriceps » (#64,722), « pédopsychiatre » (#64,719), « questionnant » (#64,723). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « pétrir » est au #64,721. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

pétrir is uncommon French at frequency #64,721 among 6,826 “P” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \pe.tʁiʁ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 7 senses are on record.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for pétrir, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is pétrir, spelled P-É-T-R-I-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Malaxer de la farine détrempée avec de l’eau pour en faire de la pâte.
  2. 2
    Presser et malaxer pour faire prendre une forme, modeler, façonner.
  3. 3
    Presser fortement avec les mains pour donner une autre forme ou pour assouplir.
  4. 4
    Façonner, travailler en profondeur.
  5. 5
    Produire un bruit désagréable semblable à ces cris et gémissements.
  6. 6
    Façonner d’une matière, d’un matériau, etc.
  7. 7
    Imbiber de sentiments.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Pétrir du pain, un gâteau.
  2. Ce boulanger pétrit bien sa pâte, son pain.

This word in other languages

knead(English)amasar(Español)kneten(Deutsch)sovar(Português)

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 "pétrir"?
"pétrir" is spelled P-É-T-R-I-R. The IPA pronunciation is \pe.tʁiʁ\.
What does "pétrir" mean?
As a verb, "pétrir" means: Malaxer de la farine détrempée avec de l’eau pour en faire de la pâte.
How do you pronounce "pétrir"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "pétrir" is \pe.tʁiʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "pétrir" come from?
"pétrir" 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 "pétrir", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

puisés#64,717radiés#64,726ravira#64,731riding#64,745

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list