poisson
\pwa.sɔ̃\
The verdict
“poisson” is a regularly-used French word, ranked #2,589 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #2,589
- frequency rank, French
- 7
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 10
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Animal possédant un squelette, généralement ovipare (mais parfois ovovivipare ou vivipare), vivant dans l’eau, et respirant généralement par des branchies (bien que certaines espèces aient des syst...
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | poisson |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \pwa.sɔ̃\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #2,589 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 10 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “poisson” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for poisson is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \pwa.sɔ̃\. Corpus data places it at rank #2,589 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for poisson, with forms such as "opisson", "piosson", and "poisosn". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 10 confusable-pair relationships, "prison", "Poissy", "poussin", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
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 poisson, spelled P-O-I-S-S-O-N.
Definition
- 1Animal possédant un squelette, généralement ovipare (mais parfois ovovivipare ou vivipare), vivant dans l’eau, et respirant généralement par des branchies (bien que certaines espèces aient des systèmes de respiration aérienne complémentaire, comme les poumons des dipneustes ou le labyrinthe des anabantidés).
- 2Tout animal aquatique.
- 3Chair de cet animal destinée à la consommation.
- 4Posture du yoga où le corps repose sur les fesses et le sommet de la tête, le tronc étant relevé.
- 5Meuble représentant un animal marin dont l’espèce n’est pas clairement identifiable dans les armoiries. Il est représenté en fasce, la tête à dextre, la gueule fermée. Toutefois certains poissons ont des dispositions différentes. Voir baleine, bar, chabot et dauphin.
- 6Ellipse de poisson d’avril.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: opisson,piosson,poisosn,poissno,poissonn,posison,ppoisson
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of poisson - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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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Using “poisson”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is P-O-I-S-S-O-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \pwa.sɔ̃\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “prison” - see the side-by-side comparison. poisson vs prison
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
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.