préau

\pʁe.o\

/\pʁe.o\/ noun

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

The verdict

“préau” has 7 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #45,809. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#45,809
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords
7
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Petit pré.

Corpus desk

Index FR-preau · préau · French

préau · rank #45,809 · 7 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #45,809
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 7 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH prunier

Nearest frequency peer: prunier (-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 « préau »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « préau » 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).

préau vs près
40% similar
préau vs prou
60% similar
préau vs préf
60% similar

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

Key facts for préau
PropertyValue
Headwordpréau
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pʁe.o\
Letters5
Frequency rank#45,809
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « préau »

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

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « prunier » (#45,808), « prémonitoire » (#45,810), « prunelle » (#45,807). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « préau » est au #45,809. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 7 spelling variants around préau (IPA \pʁe.o\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #45,809 among 6,826 “P” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for préau, with forms such as "ppréau", "praéu", and "preau". 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, "près", "prou", "préf", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is préau, spelled P-R-É-A-U.

Definition

  1. 1
    Petit pré.
  2. 2
    Partie couverte de la cour (cour de récréation) d’une école.
  3. 3
    Cour intérieure et découverte d’une prison, d’un hôpital ou au milieu du cloître d’un monastère.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Le vent remuait ainsi les feuillages au fond d'un préau d'herbes.
  2. La vieille Ajaccienne, qui nous en fait les honneurs, nous fait remarquer la terrasse carrelée qui borde le salon, Mme Lætitia l'avait fait aménager pour retenir au logis Nabulione ; c'était le préau où jouait l'Empereur enfant.

This word in other languages

yard(English)Innenhof(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ppréau
  • praéu
  • preau
  • prréau
  • préua
  • pérau
  • rpéau

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of préau - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

ppréau1praéu2preau1prréau1préua2pérau2rpéau2
Edit distance from "préau"

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 "préau"?
"préau" is spelled P-R-É-A-U. The IPA pronunciation is \pʁe.o\.
What does "préau" mean?
As a noun, "préau" means: Petit pré.
What words are commonly confused with "préau"?
"préau" is commonly confused with "près", "prou", "préf". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "préau"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "préau" is \pʁe.o\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "préau" come from?
"préau" 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 "préau", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

proud#45,806plays#45,787piron#45,785reuss#45,843

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).

salit7 variantsmonge7 variantsmance7 variantsMagog7 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list