pitance
\pi.tɑ̃s\
The verdict
“pitance” is uncommon French (frequency #61,788 among 6,826 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #61,788
- frequency rank, French
- 6,826
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Portion de pain, de vin, de viande, etc., qu’on donne à chaque repas dans les communautés religieuses.
Corpus desk
Index FR-pitance · pitance · French
pitance · rank #61,788 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #61,788
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,826
- PHOTO-FINISH piratée
Nearest frequency peer: piratée (-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 « pitance »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- pimp
pimp
38,216 corpus weight
- pinus
pinus
38,215 corpus weight
- piratée
piratée
38,214 corpus weight
- pitance
pitance
38,213 corpus weight
- PLAI
PLAI
38,211 corpus weight
- pleasure
pleasure
38,210 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « pitance » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | pitance |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \pi.tɑ̃s\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #61,788 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « pitance » en français
Rare enough to double-check
pitance is uncommon French at frequency #61,788 among 6,826 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \pi.tɑ̃s\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
pitance doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is pitance, spelled P-I-T-A-N-C-E.
Definition
- 1Portion de pain, de vin, de viande, etc., qu’on donne à chaque repas dans les communautés religieuses.
- 2Ce qu’il faut pour la subsistance d’une personne.
- 3Ce qui est susceptible de satisfaire un besoin.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how pitance appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Elle apportait de temps en temps quelque pitance au misérable pénitent, regardait par le trou s’il vivait encore.
Si on avait permis aux catholiques d’assurer, sous le contrôle de l’État bien entendu, la pitance des curés, beaucoup de difficultés eussent été évitées.
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
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "pitance", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).