provenance

\pʁɔv.nɑ̃s\

/\pʁɔv.nɑ̃s\/ noun

The verdict

“provenance” has 15 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #5,391. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#5,391
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords
15
tracked misspellings
2
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Origine, endroit d’où provient une chose.

Corpus desk

Index FR-provenance · provenance · French

provenance · rank #5,391 · 15 variants · 2 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #5,391
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-LOW 2 pairs
  • VAR-HIGH 15 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH priori

Nearest frequency peer: priori (-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 « provenance »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « provenance » 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).

provenance vs Provence
70% similar
provenance vs provenant
80% similar

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

Key facts for provenance
PropertyValue
Headwordprovenance
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pʁɔv.nɑ̃s\
Letters10
Frequency rank#5,391
Misspellings tracked15
Confusable pairs2
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « provenance »

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

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « priori » (#5,390), « refuge » (#5,392), « primaires » (#5,389). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « provenance » est au #5,391. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 15 spelling variants around provenance (IPA \pʁɔv.nɑ̃s\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #5,391 among 6,826 “P” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 15 likely wrong-spelling variants for provenance, with forms such as "porvenance", "pprovenance", and "proevnance". 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 2 confusable-pair relationships, "Provence", "provenant", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is provenance, spelled P-R-O-V-E-N-A-N-C-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Origine, endroit d’où provient une chose.
  2. 2
    (s’emploie surtout au pluriel) Tout ce qui provient d’un pays, tout ce qui est transporté d’un pays dans un autre.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. L’ampoule, qui éclairait cette dégringolade d’objets de toute provenance […] se balançait poussiéreuse, au bout de son fil, sous la voûte basse où le salpêtre faisait des croûtes.
  2. La variante sur le Hodna, baptisée Etincelle, visait à couper l'approvisionnement des katibas de Kabylie en provenance de Tunisie par le Hodna et les Aurès.

Synonyms

Antonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • porvenance
  • pprovenance
  • proevnance
  • proveannce
  • provenacne
  • provenancce
  • provenanec
  • provenannce
  • provennace
  • provennance
  • provneance
  • provvenance
  • prrovenance
  • prvoenance
  • rpovenance

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of provenance - 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.

porvenance2pprovenance1proevnance2proveannce2provenacne2provenancce1provenanec2provenannce1
Edit distance from "provenance"

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 "provenance"?
"provenance" is spelled P-R-O-V-E-N-A-N-C-E. The IPA pronunciation is \pʁɔv.nɑ̃s\.
What does "provenance" mean?
As a noun, "provenance" means: Origine, endroit d’où provient une chose.
What words are commonly confused with "provenance"?
"provenance" is commonly confused with "Provence", "provenant". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "provenance"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "provenance" is \pʁɔv.nɑ̃s\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "provenance" come from?
"provenance" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 "provenance", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (15 here; floor ≥5).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list