poterne
\pɔ.tɛʁn\
The verdict
“poterne” is uncommon French (frequency #67,013 among 248,534 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #67,013
- frequency rank, French
- 248,534
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Galerie souterraine, ménagée dans les fortifications pour faire des sorties secrètes.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | poterne |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \pɔ.tɛʁn\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #67,013 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “poterne” sits in French frequency
Rare enough to double-check
poterne is uncommon French at frequency #67,013 among 248,534 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \pɔ.tɛʁn\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for poterne, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
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 poterne, spelled P-O-T-E-R-N-E.
Definition
- 1Galerie souterraine, ménagée dans les fortifications pour faire des sorties secrètes.
- 2Porte qui ferme cette galerie.
- 3Espèce de voûte faite sous un quai dans certaines villes pour pouvoir aller librement de la rue à la rivière.
- 4Porte dérobée.
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
How do you spell "poterne"?
What does "poterne" mean?
How do you pronounce "poterne"?
What language does "poterne" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “poterne”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is P-O-T-E-R-N-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \pɔ.tɛʁn\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Other uncommon French words near this rank
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.