play

\ˈpleɪ\

/\ˈpleɪ\/ noun

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

The verdict

“play” has 6 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #4,969. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#4,969
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords
6
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Pièce de théâtre, pièce.

Corpus desk

Index FR-play · play · French

play · rank #4,969 · 6 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #4,969
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 6 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH philosophe

Nearest frequency peer: philosophe (-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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « play »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « play » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

play vs Py
25% similar
play vs plu
50% similar
play vs psy
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for play
PropertyValue
Headwordplay
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ˈpleɪ\
Letters4
Frequency rank#4,969
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « play »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.playse place ici:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « philosophe » (#4,968), « prestations » (#4,970), « panneaux » (#4,967). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « play » est au #4,969. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 6 spelling variants around play (IPA \ˈpleɪ\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #4,969 among 6,826 “P” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for play, with forms such as "lpay", "paly", and "playy". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Py", "plu", "psy", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is play, spelled P-L-A-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    Pièce de théâtre, pièce.
  2. 2
    Jeu dans le sens activité de jouer, le fait de jouer.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Not all play is learning and not all learning is play.
  2. The elementary school places an emphasis on learning, but also on play activities.

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • lpay
  • paly
  • playy
  • pllay
  • plya
  • pplay

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of play - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

lpay2paly2playy1pllay1plya2pplay1
Edit distance from "play"

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 "play"?
"play" is spelled P-L-A-Y. The IPA pronunciation is \ˈpleɪ\.
What does "play" mean?
As a noun, "play" means: Pièce de théâtre, pièce.
What words are commonly confused with "play"?
"play" is commonly confused with "Py", "plu", "psy". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "play"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "play" is \ˈpleɪ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "play" come from?
"play" 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 "play", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

sols#4,991ford#4,941œufs#5,003cave#4,919

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).

mienne6 variantslouer6 variantsroses6 variantsalice6 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list