retenue
\ʁə.tə.ny\
The verdict
“retenue” is a regularly-used French word, ranked #5,496 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #5,496
- frequency rank, French
- 7
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Action 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 | retenue |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ʁə.tə.ny\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #5,496 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “retenue” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for retenue is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ʁə.tə.ny\. Corpus data places it at rank #5,496 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
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
- 1Action de retenir.
- 2Ce qu’on retient, ce qui est retenu, prélèvement sur une somme, un montant à payer.
- 3Chiffre, nombre que l’on retient.
- 4Privation de sortie, infligée à un écolier comme punition de quelque faute.
- 5Ce qui retient de l’eau, réservoir, digue, bassin, etc.
- 6Espace entre deux écluses où l’eau est retenue.
- 7Action de se retenir.
This word in other languages
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.
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"?
What does "retenue" mean?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “retenue”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is R-E-T-E-N-U-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ʁə.tə.ny\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “revenu” - see the side-by-side comparison. retenue vs revenu
- 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.