reconnaître
\ʁə.kɔ.nɛtʁ\
The verdict
“reconnaître” is a regularly-used French word, ranked #2,593 in French word frequency and used as a verb.
- #2,593
- frequency rank, French
- 11
- letters
- 15
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Retrouver dans sa mémoire l’idée, l’image d’une personne, d’une chose, quand on vient à la revoir ou à l’entendre.
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 | reconnaître |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \ʁə.kɔ.nɛtʁ\ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #2,593 |
| Misspellings tracked | 15 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “reconnaître” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for reconnaître is 11 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ʁə.kɔ.nɛtʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #2,593 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 20 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 15 likely wrong-spelling variants for reconnaître, with forms such as "erconnaître", "rceonnaître", and "recconnaître". 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 3 confusable-pair relationships, "reconnaît", "reconnaisse", "reconnaîtra", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is reconnaître, spelled R-E-C-O-N-N-A-Î-T-R-E.
Definition
- 1Retrouver dans sa mémoire l’idée, l’image d’une personne, d’une chose, quand on vient à la revoir ou à l’entendre.
- 2Connaître, distinguer ou identifier, à quelque signe ou à quelque caractère, d’après quelque indication, une personne ou une chose qu’on n’a jamais vue.
- 3Constater, après examen, la vérité de quelque chose.
- 4Admettre une chose comme vraie, comme incontestable.
- 5Ne plus avoir égard, ne plus écouter.
- 6Avouer, confesser, déclarer.
- 7Reconnaître pour chef.
- 8Admettre parmi les puissances constituées et entrer en rapport, en parlant d'un gouvernement, d'un pays.
- 9Avouer que l'on en est l'auteur.
- 10Déclarer, dans les formes authentiques, qu’on est le géniteur.
- 11Considérer ; observer ; remarquer.
- 12S'assurer du danger.
- 13Découvrir, apercevoir, observer la situation.
- 14Explorer des contrées, des eaux inconnues.
- 15Avoir de la gratitude.
- 16Récompenser.
- 17Trouver son image, sa ressemblance dans un miroir, dans un portrait.
- 18Retrouver ses sentiments, sa manière d’être dans un autre.
- 19Se remettre dans l’esprit l’idée d’un lieu, d’un pays qu’on a quitté et où l’on se retrouve.
- 20Reprendre ses sens ; penser à ce qu’on doit faire, y faire réflexion.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: erconnaître,rceonnaître,recconnaître,recnonaître,reconanître,reconaître,reconnaitre,reconnatîre,reconnaîrte,reconnaîter,reconnaîtrre,reconnaîttre,reconnîatre,reocnnaître,rreconnaître
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of reconnaître - 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
How do you spell "reconnaître"?
What does "reconnaître" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "reconnaître"?
How do you pronounce "reconnaître"?
What language does "reconnaître" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “reconnaître”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is R-E-C-O-N-N-A-Î-T-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ʁə.kɔ.nɛtʁ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “reconnaît” - see the side-by-side comparison. reconnaître vs reconnaît
- 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.