point culminant
\pwɛ̃ kyl.mi.nɑ̃\
The verdict
“point culminant” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 15
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 2, 2026) - Partie la plus élevée d'une chose.
Corpus desk
Index FR-point-culminant · point culminant · French
point culminant · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 15 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "P" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | point culminant |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \pwɛ̃ kyl.mi.nɑ̃\ |
| Letters | 15 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “point culminant” sits in French frequency
Rare enough to double-check
point culminant is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \pwɛ̃ kyl.mi.nɑ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 5 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for point culminant, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is point culminant, spelled P-O-I-N-T- -C-U-L-M-I-N-A-N-T.
Definition
- 1Partie la plus élevée d'une chose.
- 2La plus grande hauteur d'un astre au-dessus de l’horizon.
- 3Le point où une chaîne de montagnes est le plus élevée.
- 4Le plus haut degré d'une chose.
- 5Point dans le temps et l’espace atteint par l’attaquant ou le défenseur à partir duquel ses objectifs militaires ne peuvent être accomplis et ses efforts continus pour les atteindre accroissent les risques d’échec voire de défaite. Note : notion popularisée d’après les écrits du stratège militaire Carl von Clausewitz.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how point culminant appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
La route que nous suivons est d'abord une belle avenue d’eucalyptus traversant des champs de céréales et montant doucement jusqu'à son point culminant, à 620 mètres.
Le point culminant de l’Indre est Pouligny-Notre-Dame, à 459 mètres d'altitude. Vous vous souvenez ? Les origines les plus anciennes de mon arbre généalogique sont enracinées justement à Pouligny-Notre-Dame, c'est pourquoi j'ai souvent pensé que ma famille voulait prendre de la hauteur sur le reste du monde berrichon.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 2, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "point culminant"?
What does "point culminant" mean?
How do you pronounce "point culminant"?
What language does "point culminant" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.