profaner

\pʁɔ.fa.ne\

/\pʁɔ.fa.ne\/ verb

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

The verdict

“profaner” is uncommon French (frequency #66,252 among 6,826 “P” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#66,252
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Abuser des choses de la religion, les traiter avec irrévérence, avec mépris, les employer à des usages profanes.

Corpus desk

Index FR-profaner · profaner · French

profaner · rank #66,252 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #66,252
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH procurez

Nearest frequency peer: procurez (-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 « profaner »

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 « profaner » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for profaner
PropertyValue
Headwordprofaner
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\pʁɔ.fa.ne\
Letters8
Frequency rank#66,252
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « profaner » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).profanertombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « procurez » (#66,251), « promenaient » (#66,253), « proba » (#66,250). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « profaner » est au #66,252. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

profaner is uncommon French at frequency #66,252 among 6,826 “P” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \pʁɔ.fa.ne\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for profaner, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is profaner, spelled P-R-O-F-A-N-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Abuser des choses de la religion, les traiter avec irrévérence, avec mépris, les employer à des usages profanes.
  2. 2
    Commettre un acte impie dans un lieu sacré.
  3. 3
    Faire un mauvais usage de ce qui est rare, précieux, respectable, le dégrader, le traiter avec trop peu de respect.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Et les hordes fanatisées par les prédicateurs de la Croisade trouvèrent tout naturel, avant de régler leur compte à ceux qui avaient profané (soi-disant) le tombeau du Christ, de châtier les descendants des « déicides ».
  2. Cette église a été profanée. — Les tombes furent profanées.

This word in other languages

profane(English)profanar(Español)profanieren(Deutsch)profanar(Português)

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 "profaner"?
"profaner" is spelled P-R-O-F-A-N-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is \pʁɔ.fa.ne\.
What does "profaner" mean?
As a verb, "profaner" means: Abuser des choses de la religion, les traiter avec irrévérence, avec mépris, les employer à des usages profanes.
How do you pronounce "profaner"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "profaner" is \pʁɔ.fa.ne\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "profaner" come from?
"profaner" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "profaner", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

procurez#66,251poisseux#66,236racoleur#66,271pleureur#66,230

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list