puissance

\pɥi.sɑ̃s\

/\pɥi.sɑ̃s\/ noun

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

The verdict

“puissance” has 11 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #1,188. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#1,188
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords
11
tracked misspellings
5
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Pouvoir d’imposer son autorité.

Corpus desk

Index FR-puissance · puissance · French

puissance · rank #1,188 · 11 variants · 5 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #1,188
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-MID 5 pairs
  • VAR-MID 11 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH pression

Nearest frequency peer: pression (-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.

Frequency neighbourhood for “puissance”

Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “puissance” sits against the nearest ranked French headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.

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).

puissance vs puissant
78% similar
puissance vs puissante
89% similar
puissance vs puissants
78% similar

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

Key facts for puissance
PropertyValue
Headwordpuissance
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\pɥi.sɑ̃s\
Letters9
Frequency rank#1,188
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs5
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “puissance” sits in French frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). puissance lands here:

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

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 11 spelling variants around puissance (IPA \pɥi.sɑ̃s\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #1,188 among 6,826 “P” headwords. Wiktionary lists 20 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for puissance, with forms such as "piussance", "ppuissance", and "puisance". 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 5 confusable-pair relationships, "puissant", "puissante", "puissants", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

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 puissance, spelled P-U-I-S-S-A-N-C-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Pouvoir d’imposer son autorité.
  2. 2
    Domination, empire.
  3. 3
    État souverain.
  4. 4
    Ceux qui possèdent les premières dignités de l’État.
  5. 5
    Pouvoir de faire une chose.
  6. 6
    Force.
  7. 7
    Probabilité, potentiel, capacité d’un acteur d’imposer sa volonté à un autre.
  8. 8
    Ce qui exerce beaucoup d’empire sur l’âme ou sur l’esprit.
  9. 9
    Efficacité qu’on attribue à certains remèdes, à certaines substances. Vertu, propriété.
  10. 10
    Possibilité qui n’est pas encore réalisée.
  11. 11
    Ensemble de forces motrices, de tout ce qui imprime ou peut imprimer un mouvement.
  12. 12
    Portée d’un instrument d’optique.
  13. 13
    Quantité d’énergie ou de travail fourni, ou susceptible d’être fourni ou consommé, par unité de temps, mesurée en watts.
  14. 14
    Consommation d’un appareil électrique.
  15. 15
    Épaisseur d’une couche de minerai exploitable entre deux couches de roches.
  16. 16
    Une des hiérarchies des anges.
  17. 17
    Produit d’une quantité un nombre entier de fois par lui-même, la quantité pouvant être un nombre réel ou complexe, une indéterminée, etc.
  18. 18
    Nombre de fois qu’on multiplie une quantité par elle-même.
  19. 19
    ?
  20. 20
    Concours de saut d’obstacles de quatre à six obstacles dont un mur, ou un vertical de remplacement, qui doit être l’obstacle le plus haut.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. La puissance du faible qui peut se glisser partout est plus grande que celle du fort qui se repose sur ses canons.
  2. Mais quand l’Église, profitant de l’effondrement de la puissance romaine et du désarroi provoqué à travers les Gaules par les invasions barbares, s’installa dans le pays sans que nul n’y prît garde, son premier soin fut de s’assurer de la possession des terres.

Synonyms

pouvoirforce

Antonyms

impuissance

This word in other languages

power(English)potencia(Español)Reich(Deutsch)estado(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • piussance
  • ppuissance
  • puisance
  • puisasnce
  • puissacne
  • puissancce
  • puissanec
  • puissannce
  • puissnace
  • pusisance
  • upissance

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of puissance - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

piussance2ppuissance1puisance1puisasnce2puissacne2puissancce1puissanec2puissannce1
Edit distance from "puissance"

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.

PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "puissance"?
"puissance" is spelled P-U-I-S-S-A-N-C-E. The IPA pronunciation is \pɥi.sɑ̃s\.
What does "puissance" mean?
As a noun, "puissance" means: Pouvoir d’imposer son autorité.
What words are commonly confused with "puissance"?
"puissance" is commonly confused with "puissant", "puissante", "puissants". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "puissance"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "puissance" is \pɥi.sɑ̃s\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "puissance" come from?
"puissance" 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 "puissance", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

évolution#1,196transport#1,172étudiants#1,217principal#1,233

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).

religion11 variantsvolonté11 variantshôpital11 variantsBelgique11 variants

What to do next

You've looked up "puissance". Here's where to go from here.

  • "puissance" maps to 5 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "puissant". View pair
  • 11 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
  • Usage frequency rank #1,188 among French headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
  • Browse more French words in the "P" letter cohort. P–Z browse

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list