préhistoire

/\pʁe.is.twaʁ\/ noun

Letters

11 characters

Frequency Rank

#18,569

in French word usage

Misspellings

17

tracked variants

Confusables

0

similar word pairs

préhistoire is aFrenchnoun. It means: Période de l'histoire de l'humanité antérieure à l’apparition de l’écriture. Pronounced \pʁe.is.twaʁ\.

Key facts for préhistoire
PropertyValue
Headwordpréhistoire
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pʁe.is.twaʁ\
Letters11
Frequency rank#18,569
Misspellings tracked17
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of préhistoire in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for préhistoire is 11 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \pʁe.is.twaʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #18,569 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 17 documented wrong-spelling variants for préhistoire, with forms such as "ppréhistoire", "prehistoire", and "prhéistoire". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is préhistoire, spelled P-R-É-H-I-S-T-O-I-R-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Période de l'histoire de l'humanité antérieure à l’apparition de l’écriture.
  2. 2
    Science qui étudie cette période.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: ppréhistoire,prehistoire,prhéistoire,prréhistoire,préhhistoire,préhisotire,préhisstoire,préhistiore,préhistoier,préhistoirre,préhistorie,préhisttoire,préhitsoire,préhsitoire,préihstoire,pérhistoire,rpéhistoire

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for préhistoire

Misspelling Variants of "préhistoire"

ppréhistoire12prehistoire11prhéistoire11prréhistoire12préhhistoire12préhisotire11préhisstoire12préhistiore11
Misspelling Variants of "préhistoire"

Frequency rank: #18,569 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "préhistoire"?
"préhistoire" is spelled P-R-É-H-I-S-T-O-I-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \pʁe.is.twaʁ\.
What does "préhistoire" mean?
As a noun, "préhistoire" means: Période de l'histoire de l'humanité antérieure à l’apparition de l’écriture.
What are common misspellings of "préhistoire"?
Common misspellings include "ppréhistoire", "prehistoire", "prhéistoire", "prréhistoire", "préhhistoire". The correct spelling is "préhistoire".
How do you pronounce "préhistoire"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "préhistoire" is \pʁe.is.twaʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "préhistoire" come from?
"préhistoire" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter P in our French index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.