philistin

\fi.lis.tɛ̃\

/\fi.lis.tɛ̃\/ adj

The verdict

“philistin” is uncommon French (frequency #93,089 among 6,826 “P” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#93,089
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Relatif aux Philistins.

Corpus desk

Index FR-philistin · philistin · French

philistin · rank #93,089 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #93,089
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH Pharmaprix

Nearest frequency peer: Pharmaprix (-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 « philistin »

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 « philistin » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for philistin
PropertyValue
Headwordphilistin
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\fi.lis.tɛ̃\
Letters9
Frequency rank#93,089
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « philistin » en français

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

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « Pharmaprix » (#93,088), « Petrova » (#93,087), « photographient » (#93,091). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « philistin » est au #93,089. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

philistin is uncommon French at frequency #93,089 among 6,826 “P” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \fi.lis.tɛ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

philistin doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is philistin, spelled P-H-I-L-I-S-T-I-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    Relatif aux Philistins.
  2. 2
    Qualifie une personne, un comportement ignorant, fat, béotien…
  3. 3
    Qualifie une personne non religieuse, athée…

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. La poterie philistine se caractérise par une influence mycénienne prédominante.
  2. Il [son frère aîné] est pour moi le type achevé du philistin ; non qu’il soit tout à fait insensible car il a toujours eu – à l’instar de mon père – certains goûts artistiques et littéraires […], non qu’il soit absolument dénué d’humanité […], mais à cause de son côté timoré, pantouflard, sentimental, sans passion, déiste sans mysticisme, bien-pensant san…

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 "philistin"?
"philistin" is spelled P-H-I-L-I-S-T-I-N. The IPA pronunciation is \fi.lis.tɛ̃\.
What does "philistin" mean?
As an adjective, "philistin" means: Relatif aux Philistins.
How do you pronounce "philistin"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "philistin" is \fi.lis.tɛ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "philistin" come from?
"philistin" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "philistin", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list