philtre

\filtʁ\

/\filtʁ\/ noun

The verdict

“philtre” is uncommon French (frequency #63,995 among 6,826 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#63,995
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Breuvage, drogue, qu’on suppose propre à donner de l’amour, ou, en général, à provoquer quelque passion.

Corpus desk

Index FR-philtre · philtre · French

philtre · rank #63,995 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #63,995
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH phrygien

Nearest frequency peer: phrygien (+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 « philtre »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for philtre
PropertyValue
Headwordphiltre
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\filtʁ\
Letters7
Frequency rank#63,995
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « philtre » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).philtretombe 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: « phrygien » (#63,996), « peuplade » (#63,993), « Peru » (#63,992). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « philtre » est au #63,995. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

philtre is uncommon French at frequency #63,995 among 6,826 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \filtʁ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

No misspelling variants are generated for philtre in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is philtre, spelled P-H-I-L-T-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Breuvage, drogue, qu’on suppose propre à donner de l’amour, ou, en général, à provoquer quelque passion.
  2. 2
    Chez l’Humain, repli en forme de gouttière qui relie la base du nez à la lèvre supérieure, au niveau de l’arc de Cupidon.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. On peut donc continuer à boire de l'eau de Seltz sans crainte, […]. C'est un digestif, un stimulant de l'appétit, un philtre merveilleux qui donne à un vin médiocre les qualités d'un bon cru, et fait plus contre l'ivrognerie que toutes les Sociétés de tempérance.
  2. Il avait des dollars dans sa poche ; ‬la nuit s’ouvrait, tous les philtres allaient couler, il allait plaire à tous et toutes. La drogue qui l’isolait de tout contact, qui le soustrayait à toute épreuve, l’avait confirmé dans cette imagination immobile.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

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 "philtre"?
"philtre" is spelled P-H-I-L-T-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \filtʁ\.
What does "philtre" mean?
As a noun, "philtre" means: Breuvage, drogue, qu’on suppose propre à donner de l’amour, ou, en général, à provoquer quelque passion.
How do you pronounce "philtre"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "philtre" is \filtʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "philtre" come from?
"philtre" 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 "philtre", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list