provost
The verdict
“provost” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #41,468 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #41,468
- frequency rank, French
- 7
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 9
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Variante de prevost.
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 | provost |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #41,468 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 9 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “provost” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for provost is 7 letters long, classified as a noun. Corpus data places it at rank #41,468 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Variante de prevost.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for provost, with forms such as "porvost", "pprovost", and "proovst". 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 9 confusable-pair relationships, "Prost", "propos", "Proust", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is provost, spelled P-R-O-V-O-S-T.
Definition
- 1Variante de prevost.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: porvost,pprovost,proovst,provosst,provostt,provots,provsot,provvost,prrovost,prvoost,rpovost
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of provost - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 "provost"?
What does "provost" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "provost"?
What language does "provost" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “provost”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is P-R-O-V-O-S-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “Prost” - see the side-by-side comparison. provost vs Prost
- 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.