préliminaire

\pʁe.li.mi.nɛʁ\

/\pʁe.li.mi.nɛʁ\/ adj

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

The verdict

“préliminaire” has 18 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #8,911. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#8,911
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords
18
tracked misspellings
1
confusable pair

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui précède, qui prépare l’objet principal.

Corpus desk

Index FR-preliminaire · préliminaire · French

préliminaire · rank #8,911 · 18 variants · 1 confusable

  • FREQ-COMMON #8,911
  • LEN-MEGA 12 letters
  • VOW-6 6 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 1 pairs
  • VAR-HIGH 18 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH produites

Nearest frequency peer: produites (-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 « préliminaire »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « préliminaire » 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).

préliminaire vs préliminaires
92% similar

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

Key facts for préliminaire
PropertyValue
Headwordpréliminaire
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\pʁe.li.mi.nɛʁ\
Letters12
Frequency rank#8,911
Misspellings tracked18
Confusable pairs1
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « préliminaire »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).préliminairese place ici:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « produites » (#8,910), « rail » (#8,913), « pleines » (#8,908). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « préliminaire » est au #8,911. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 18 spelling variants around préliminaire (IPA \pʁe.li.mi.nɛʁ\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #8,911 among 6,826 “P” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 18 likely wrong-spelling variants for préliminaire, with forms such as "ppréliminaire", "preliminaire", and "prléiminaire". 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 1 confusable-pair relationship, "préliminaires", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is préliminaire, spelled P-R-É-L-I-M-I-N-A-I-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Qui précède, qui prépare l’objet principal.
  2. 2
    Qualifie, en matière de négociation, les articles généraux qui doivent être réglés avant que l’on entre dans la discussion des intérêts particuliers des puissances contractantes.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Le 13 novembre 1970, dans les premiers jours du gouvernement Allende, on réalisa au Chili une étude préliminaire sur les relations militaires de ce pays avec les USA.

Antonyms

postliminaire

This word in other languages

preliminary(English)vorbereitend(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ppréliminaire
  • preliminaire
  • prléiminaire
  • prréliminaire
  • préilminaire
  • préliimnaire
  • prélimianire
  • préliminaier
  • préliminairre
  • préliminarie
  • préliminiare
  • préliminnaire
  • prélimminaire
  • prélimniaire
  • prélliminaire
  • prélmiinaire
  • pérliminaire
  • rpéliminaire

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of préliminaire - 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.

ppréliminaire1preliminaire1prléiminaire2prréliminaire1préilminaire2préliimnaire2prélimianire2préliminaier2
Edit distance from "préliminaire"

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 "préliminaire"?
"préliminaire" is spelled P-R-É-L-I-M-I-N-A-I-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \pʁe.li.mi.nɛʁ\.
What does "préliminaire" mean?
As an adjective, "préliminaire" means: Qui précède, qui prépare l’objet principal.
What words are commonly confused with "préliminaire"?
"préliminaire" is commonly confused with "préliminaires". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "préliminaire"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "préliminaire" is \pʁe.li.mi.nɛʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "préliminaire" come from?
"préliminaire" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "préliminaire", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 12 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

significatif#8,926soudainement#8,928touristiques#8,938accumulation#8,951

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (18 here; floor ≥5).

illustrations18 variantsfrancophonie18 variantsdisparaissent18 variantscontrepartie18 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list