retenue

\ʁə.tə.ny\

/\ʁə.tə.ny\/ noun

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

The verdict

“retenue” has 9 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #5,496. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#5,496
frequency rank, French
5,742
“R” headwords
9
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Action de retenir.

Corpus desk

Index FR-retenue · retenue · French

retenue · rank #5,496 · 9 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #5,496
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 9 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,742
  • PHOTO-FINISH renoncer

Nearest frequency peer: renoncer (-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 « retenue »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « retenue » 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).

retenue vs revenu
71% similar
retenue vs rétine
57% similar
retenue vs revenus
71% similar

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

Key facts for retenue
PropertyValue
Headwordretenue
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ʁə.tə.ny\
Letters7
Frequency rank#5,496
Misspellings tracked9
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « retenue »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).retenuese place ici:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « renoncer » (#5,495), « reçoivent » (#5,497), « rendant » (#5,494). Parmi 5,742 lemmes en « R », « retenue » est au #5,496. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 9 spelling variants around retenue (IPA \ʁə.tə.ny\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #5,496 among 5,742 “R” headwords. Wiktionary lists 7 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for retenue, with forms such as "ertenue", "reetnue", and "reteneu". 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, "revenu", "rétine", "revenus", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is retenue, spelled R-E-T-E-N-U-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Action de retenir.
  2. 2
    Ce qu’on retient, ce qui est retenu, prélèvement sur une somme, un montant à payer.
  3. 3
    Chiffre, nombre que l’on retient.
  4. 4
    Privation de sortie, infligée à un écolier comme punition de quelque faute.
  5. 5
    Ce qui retient de l’eau, réservoir, digue, bassin, etc.
  6. 6
    Espace entre deux écluses où l’eau est retenue.
  7. 7
    Action de se retenir.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. La retenue est de tant pour cent.
  2. Subir une retenue.

Synonyms

mesuremodérationdiscrétionréservetact

This word in other languages

restraint(English)Nachsitzen(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ertenue
  • reetnue
  • reteneu
  • retennue
  • reteune
  • retneue
  • rettenue
  • rretenue
  • rteenue

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

ertenue2reetnue2reteneu2retennue1reteune2retneue2rettenue1rretenue1
Edit distance from "retenue"

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 "retenue"?
"retenue" is spelled R-E-T-E-N-U-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ʁə.tə.ny\.
What does "retenue" mean?
As a noun, "retenue" means: Action de retenir.
What words are commonly confused with "retenue"?
"retenue" is commonly confused with "revenu", "rétine", "revenus". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "retenue"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "retenue" is \ʁə.tə.ny\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "retenue" come from?
"retenue" 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 "retenue", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

rendant#5,494salarié#5,501suisses#5,503ordonné#5,481

Similar misspelling depth

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

rayons9 variantsmanteau9 variantsbriser9 variantsdébile9 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list