primate

\pʁi.mat\

/\pʁi.mat\/ noun

The verdict

“primate” is uncommon French (frequency #50,435 among 6,826 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#50,435
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Animal appartenant au taxon des Primates

Corpus desk

Index FR-primate · primate · French

primate · rank #50,435 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #50,435
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH procédait

Nearest frequency peer: procédait (+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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « primate »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « primate » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for primate
PropertyValue
Headwordprimate
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pʁi.mat\
Letters7
Frequency rank#50,435
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « primate » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.primatetombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « procédait » (#50,436), « pouet » (#50,433), « proférer » (#50,437). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « primate » est au #50,435. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

primate is uncommon French at frequency #50,435 among 6,826 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \pʁi.mat\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Animal appartenant au taxon des Primates".

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for primate, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is primate, spelled P-R-I-M-A-T-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Animal appartenant au taxon des Primates

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Et pourquoi l’approche évolutionniste serait-elle scientifique lorsqu’elle est appliquée à l’ensemble des espèces vivantes et non scientifique lorsqu’elle est appliquée au primate humain ?
  2. Parmi les heureux bénéficiaires du vaccin figure Karen, une femelle orang-outan qui était devenue en 1994 le premier primate non humain à subir une opération à cœur ouvert.

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 "primate"?
"primate" is spelled P-R-I-M-A-T-E. The IPA pronunciation is \pʁi.mat\.
What does "primate" mean?
As a noun, "primate" means: Animal appartenant au taxon des Primates
How do you pronounce "primate"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "primate" is \pʁi.mat\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "primate" come from?
"primate" 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 "primate", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list