prima facie
\ˈpraɪ.mə ˈfeɪ.ʃi.ˌi\
The verdict
“prima facie” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as an adverb - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - À première vue.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | prima facie |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | \ˈpraɪ.mə ˈfeɪ.ʃi.ˌi\ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “prima facie” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for prima facie is 11 letters long, classified as an adverb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ˈpraɪ.mə ˈfeɪ.ʃi.ˌi\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "À première vue.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for prima facie, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is prima facie, spelled P-R-I-M-A- -F-A-C-I-E.
Definition
- 1À première vue.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “prima facie”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is P-R-I-M-A- -F-A-C-I-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ˈpraɪ.mə ˈfeɪ.ʃi.ˌi\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.