retenant
\ʁə.tə.nɑ̃\
The verdict
“retenant” has 12 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #30,778. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #30,778
- frequency rank, French
- 507,453
- “R” headwords
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 17
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Participe présent de retenir.
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 | retenant |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \ʁə.tə.nɑ̃\ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #30,778 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 17 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “retenant” sits in French frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 12 spelling variants around retenant (IPA \ʁə.tə.nɑ̃\), averb. Corpus frequency is #30,778 among 507,453 “R” headwords. Dominant gloss: "Participe présent de retenir.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for retenant, with forms such as "ertenant", "reetnant", and "reteannt". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 17 confusable-pair relationships, "revenant", "revenait", "révélant", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is retenant, spelled R-E-T-E-N-A-N-T.
Definition
- 1Participe présent de retenir.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ertenant,reetnant,reteannt,retenannt,retenantt,retenatn,retennant,retennat,retneant,rettenant,rretenant,rteenant
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of retenant - 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.
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 "retenant"?
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Using “retenant”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is R-E-T-E-N-A-N-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ʁə.tə.nɑ̃\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “revenant” - see the side-by-side comparison. retenant vs revenant
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Same frequency band
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.