préliminaire
\pʁe.li.mi.nɛʁ\
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
- 248,534
- “P” headwords
- 18
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Qui précède, qui prépare l’objet principal.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | préliminaire |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \pʁe.li.mi.nɛʁ\ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Frequency rank | #8,911 |
| Misspellings tracked | 18 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “préliminaire” sits in French frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 18 spelling variants around préliminaire (IPA \pʁe.li.mi.nɛʁ\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #8,911 among 248,534 “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
- 1Qui précède, qui prépare l’objet principal.
- 2Qualifie, 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.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
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.
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"?
What does "préliminaire" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "préliminaire"?
How do you pronounce "préliminaire"?
What language does "préliminaire" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “préliminaire”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is P-R-É-L-I-M-I-N-A-I-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \pʁe.li.mi.nɛʁ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “préliminaires” - see the side-by-side comparison. préliminaire vs préliminaires
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Same frequency band
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.