retrouver

/\ʁə.tʁu.ve\/ verb

Letters

9 characters

Frequency Rank

#829

in French word usage

Misspellings

13

tracked variants

Confusables

12

similar word pairs

retrouver is aFrenchverb. It means: Revenir en contact avec quelqu'un ou quelque chose dont on avait été séparé, qu'on avait perdu ou qu'on avait oublié. Pronounced \ʁə.tʁu.ve\. It ranks #829 in French word frequency. Often confused with retrouvez and retrouvés.

Key facts for retrouver
PropertyValue
Headwordretrouver
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\ʁə.tʁu.ve\
Letters9
Frequency rank#829
Misspellings tracked13
Confusable pairs12
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of retrouver in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for retrouver is 9 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ʁə.tʁu.ve\. Corpus data places it at rank #829 in overall French word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 13 documented wrong-spelling variants for retrouver, with forms such as "ertrouver", "rertouver", and "retoruver". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 12 confusable-pair relationships, "retrouvez", "retrouvés", "retrouvera", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is retrouver, spelled R-E-T-R-O-U-V-E-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Revenir en contact avec quelqu'un ou quelque chose dont on avait été séparé, qu'on avait perdu ou qu'on avait oublié.
  2. 2
    Revenir en contact avec quelque chose qui avait été perdu, voire oublié, par quelqu'un d'autre.
  3. 3
    Récupérer, rentrer en possession de quelque chose qu'on avait perdu ou oublié.
  4. 4
    Rejoindre.
  5. 5
    Reconnaître.
  6. 6
    Reconnaître son chemin, s’orienter, se repérer.
  7. 7
    Prendre ou reprendre une position ou une situation.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: ertrouver,rertouver,retoruver,retrouevr,retrouverr,retrouvre,retrouvver,retrovuer,retrrouver,retruover,rettrouver,rretrouver,rterouver

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for retrouver

Misspelling Variants of "retrouver"

ertrouver9rertouver9retoruver9retrouevr9retrouverr10retrouvre9retrouvver10retrovuer9
Misspelling Variants of "retrouver"

Frequency rank: #829 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "retrouver"?
"retrouver" is spelled R-E-T-R-O-U-V-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is \ʁə.tʁu.ve\.
What does "retrouver" mean?
As a verb, "retrouver" means: Revenir en contact avec quelqu'un ou quelque chose dont on avait été séparé, qu'on avait perdu ou qu'on avait oublié.
What words are commonly confused with "retrouver"?
"retrouver" is commonly confused with "retrouvez", "retrouvés", "retrouvera". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "retrouver"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "retrouver" is \ʁə.tʁu.ve\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "retrouver" come from?
"retrouver" 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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter R in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.