premier
\pʁə.mje\
The verdict
“premier” is in the everyday core of French, ranked #145 in French word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #145
- frequency rank, French
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 18
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Adjectif numéral ordinal correspondant au nombre 1.
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 | premier |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \pʁə.mje\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #145 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 18 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “premier” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for premier is 7 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \pʁə.mje\. Corpus data places it at rank #145 in overall French word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 12 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for premier, with forms such as "permier", "ppremier", and "preimer". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 18 confusable-pair relationships, "prier", "prêter", "primer", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is premier, spelled P-R-E-M-I-E-R.
Definition
- 1Adjectif numéral ordinal correspondant au nombre 1.
- 2Qui précède tous les autres par rapport au temps, au lieu, à l’ordre, à la dignité, etc.
- 3Qui passe devant ; qui vient en avant ; qui commence d’abord.
- 4Le meilleur ou le plus considérable.
- 5De première : d’une grande qualité.
- 6N’importe quel.
- 7Qui est indispensable ou qui est nécessaire avant tout.
- 8Qui avait été auparavant, qu’on avait déjà eu.
- 9Qualifie le commencement ou l’ébauche de quelque chose.
- 10Qualifie le début ou la première partie d’une période, d'un phénomène.
- 11Qualifie le rôle et la position hiérarchique à celui qui est le leader dans une fonction.
- 12Utilisé pour qualifier certains nombres entiers positifs dans la locution nominale nombre premier (laquelle possède deux définitions distinctes).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: permier,ppremier,preimer,premeir,premierr,premire,premmier,prmeier,prremier,rpemier
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of premier - 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
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Using “premier”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is P-R-E-M-I-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \pʁə.mje\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “prier” - see the side-by-side comparison. premier vs prier
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
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.