pontier

\pɔ̃.tje\

/\pɔ̃.tje\/ noun

The verdict

“pontier” is uncommon French (frequency #84,182 among 6,826 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#84,182
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Celui dont le métier consiste à manœuvrer un pont roulant.

Corpus desk

Index FR-pontier · pontier · French

pontier · rank #84,182 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #84,182
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH ponctuations

Nearest frequency peer: ponctuations (-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 « pontier »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for pontier
PropertyValue
Headwordpontier
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pɔ̃.tje\
Letters7
Frequency rank#84,182
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « pontier » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).pontiertombe 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: « ponctuations » (#84,181), « poitevins » (#84,180), « poularde » (#84,184). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « pontier » est au #84,182. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

pontier is uncommon French at frequency #84,182 among 6,826 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \pɔ̃.tje\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for pontier, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is pontier, spelled P-O-N-T-I-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Celui dont le métier consiste à manœuvrer un pont roulant.
  2. 2
    Celui dont le métier consiste à manœuvrer un pont mobile (tournant, levant ou basculant).

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Le métier de pontier ou pontière consiste à conduire un pont roulant. Un pont roulant est un engin de manutention mécanisé permettant le levage et le transport de lourdes charges.
  2. La ville de Paris a fait construire en 1885 par la compagnie de Fives-Lille un pont levant sur le bassin de la Villette. Quand un bateau demande le passage, le pontier ferme le pont par une chaîne sur chacune des rives, se place sur la rive gauche pour faire la manœuvre, puis enlève les chaînes en commençant par celle de cette rive.

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 "pontier"?
"pontier" is spelled P-O-N-T-I-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is \pɔ̃.tje\.
What does "pontier" mean?
As a noun, "pontier" means: Celui dont le métier consiste à manœuvrer un pont roulant.
How do you pronounce "pontier"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "pontier" is \pɔ̃.tje\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "pontier" come from?
"pontier" 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 "pontier", 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