protect
\pɹəˈtɛkt\
The verdict
“protect” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #49,874 in French word frequency and used as a verb.
- #49,874
- frequency rank, French
- 7
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 10
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Protéger.
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 | protect |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \pɹəˈtɛkt\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #49,874 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 10 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “protect” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for protect is 7 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \pɹəˈtɛkt\. Corpus data places it at rank #49,874 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Protéger.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for protect, with forms such as "portect", "pprotect", and "proetct". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 10 confusable-pair relationships, "protégé", "protesté", "projet", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is protect, spelled P-R-O-T-E-C-T.
Definition
- 1Protéger.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: portect,pprotect,proetct,protcet,protecct,protectt,protetc,prottect,prrotect,prtoect,rpotect
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of protect - 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 “protect”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is P-R-O-T-E-C-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \pɹəˈtɛkt\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “protégé” - see the side-by-side comparison. protect vs protégé
- 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.