retard

\ʁə.taʁ\

/\ʁə.taʁ\/ noun

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

The verdict

“retard” has 9 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #1,494. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#1,494
frequency rank, French
5,742
“R” headwords
9
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Fait d’arriver, de se produire plus tard que prévu, d’agir trop tard ; délai, remise, ralentissement.

Corpus desk

Index FR-retard · retard · French

retard · rank #1,494 · 9 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #1,494
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 9 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,742
  • PHOTO-FINISH québécois

Nearest frequency peer: québécois (-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 « retard »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « retard » 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).

retard vs rétro
50% similar
retard vs retiré
67% similar
retard vs Ricard
50% similar

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

Key facts for retard
PropertyValue
Headwordretard
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ʁə.taʁ\
Letters6
Frequency rank#1,494
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « retard »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).retardse 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 « québécois » (#1,493), « savent » (#1,495), « planète » (#1,492). Parmi 5,742 lemmes en « R », « retard » est au #1,494. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 9 spelling variants around retard (IPA \ʁə.taʁ\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #1,494 among 5,742 “R” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for retard, with forms such as "ertard", "reatrd", and "retadr". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "rétro", "retiré", "Ricard", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is retard, spelled R-E-T-A-R-D.

Definition

  1. 1
    Fait d’arriver, de se produire plus tard que prévu, d’agir trop tard ; délai, remise, ralentissement.
  2. 2
    Dispositif qui, dans une pendule ou une montre, sert à retarder ou à avancer son mouvement.
  3. 3
    Note d’un accord qui continue à sonner pendant l’accord suivant, constituant une note étrangère.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. J'avais rendez-vous avec Nguyên Trinh, me dit-il, tandis que nous nous asseyons, mais ma montre déraille et je suis arrivé avec un solide retard.
  2. La mariée arrive avec le retard de circonstance, affublée d'une extraordinaire robe bouffante et emperlousée qui aurait fait rougir de honte même la fée la plus frivole.

Synonyms

ajournementarriérédécalagedélairetardementtemporisation

Antonyms

avanceanticipation

This word in other languages

backwardness(English)retraso(Español)Verspätung(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ertard
  • reatrd
  • retadr
  • retardd
  • retarrd
  • retrad
  • rettard
  • rretard
  • rteard

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of retard - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

ertard2reatrd2retadr2retardd1retarrd1retrad2rettard1rretard1
Edit distance from "retard"

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 "retard"?
"retard" is spelled R-E-T-A-R-D. The IPA pronunciation is \ʁə.taʁ\.
What does "retard" mean?
As a noun, "retard" means: Fait d’arriver, de se produire plus tard que prévu, d’agir trop tard ; délai, remise, ralentissement.
What words are commonly confused with "retard"?
"retard" is commonly confused with "rétro", "retiré", "Ricard". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "retard"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "retard" is \ʁə.taʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "retard" come from?
"retard" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "retard", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

savent#1,495objets#1,487agence#1,502mourir#1,486

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).

opinion9 variantsactuelle9 variantsdéputé9 variantsdanger9 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list