preuve

\pʁœv\

/\pʁœv\/ noun

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

The verdict

“preuve” has 8 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #950. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#950
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords
8
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Ce qui établit la véracité d’une proposition ou d’un fait.

Corpus desk

Index FR-preuve · preuve · French

preuve · rank #950 · 8 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #950
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 8 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH premières

Nearest frequency peer: premières (-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 « preuve »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « preuve » 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).

preuve vs privé
50% similar
preuve vs prévu
50% similar
preuve vs proue
67% similar

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

Key facts for preuve
PropertyValue
Headwordpreuve
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pʁœv\
Letters6
Frequency rank#950
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « preuve »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).preuvese place ici:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « premières » (#949), « prison » (#951), « petites » (#948). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « preuve » est au #950. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 8 spelling variants around preuve (IPA \pʁœv\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #950 among 6,826 “P” headwords. Wiktionary lists 5 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for preuve, with forms such as "peruve", "ppreuve", and "preuev". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "privé", "prévu", "proue", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is preuve, spelled P-R-E-U-V-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Ce qui établit la véracité d’une proposition ou d’un fait.
  2. 2
    Ensemble de titres, d'extraits, de pièces que l’on met à la fin d’une histoire ou d’un autre ouvrage, pour prouver la vérité des faits qui y sont avancés.
  3. 3
    L'ensemble des témoignages, pièces à conviction, etc., présentés au tribunal par l'une des parties à un litige.
  4. 4
    Marque, signe, témoignage.
  5. 5
    Vérification d’une opération de calcul, qui se fait par l’opération opposée.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. — D'abord, chercher des preuves, répondit sans hésiter la marquise. Quand nous en aurons de positives, je me chargerai, moi, d'avertir la justice.
  2. Tous les états de la sensibilité sont moteurs. Le langage lui-même en contient la preuve. Il les appelle des émotions.

This word in other languages

proof(English)prueba(Español)Beweis(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • peruve
  • ppreuve
  • preuev
  • preuvve
  • prevue
  • prreuve
  • prueve
  • rpeuve

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of preuve - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

peruve2ppreuve1preuev2preuvve1prevue2prreuve1prueve2rpeuve2
Edit distance from "preuve"

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 "preuve"?
"preuve" is spelled P-R-E-U-V-E. The IPA pronunciation is \pʁœv\.
What does "preuve" mean?
As a noun, "preuve" means: Ce qui établit la véracité d’une proposition ou d’un fait.
What words are commonly confused with "preuve"?
"preuve" is commonly confused with "privé", "prévu", "proue". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "preuve"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "preuve" is \pʁœv\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "preuve" come from?
"preuve" 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 "preuve", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

prison#951maître#946devenu#937dehors#935

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).

Adresse8 variantsessayer8 variantsavenir8 variantsmorts8 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list