rire

\ʁiʁ\

/\ʁiʁ\/ verb

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

The verdict

“rire” has 5 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #1,375. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#1,375
frequency rank, French
5,742
“R” headwords
5
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Marquer un sentiment de gaieté par un mouvement de la bouche accompagné souvent de bruit et par une expression correspondante des regards et des traits du visage.

Corpus desk

Index FR-rire · rire · French

rire · rank #1,375 · 5 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #1,375
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 5 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,742
  • PHOTO-FINISH rencontrer

Nearest frequency peer: rencontrer (-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 « rire »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « rire » 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).

rire vs rue
50% similar
rire vs riz
50% similar
rire vs ris
50% similar

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

Key facts for rire
PropertyValue
Headwordrire
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\ʁiʁ\
Letters4
Frequency rank#1,375
Misspellings tracked5
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « rire »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).rirese 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 « rencontrer » (#1,374), « salut » (#1,377), « recevoir » (#1,372). Parmi 5,742 lemmes en « R », « rire » est au #1,375. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 5 spelling variants around rire (IPA \ʁiʁ\), averb. Corpus frequency is #1,375 among 5,742 “R” headwords. Wiktionary lists 9 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for rire, with forms such as "irre", "rier", and "rirre". 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, "rue", "riz", "ris", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is rire, spelled R-I-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Marquer un sentiment de gaieté par un mouvement de la bouche accompagné souvent de bruit et par une expression correspondante des regards et des traits du visage.
  2. 2
    Se divertir ; se réjouir.
  3. 3
    Railler ; badiner ; ne pas parler ou ne pas agir sérieusement.
  4. 4
    Être agréable, plaire, en parlant des choses.
  5. 5
    (indirect) Ne pas se soucier de quelque chose ; témoigner qu’on n’en tient pas de compte, qu’on ne s’en soucie pas ; s’en moquer.
  6. 6
    (indirect) Être favorable.
  7. 7
    Se divertir.
  8. 8
    Se moquer de quelqu’un.
  9. 9
    Ne pas tenir compte d’une chose, la mépriser.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. La plus perdue de toutes les journées est celle où l’on n’a pas ri.
  2. Le bambin fuyait la chemise ou le bonnet de nuit avec lequel la marquise le menaçait parfois ; il gardait sa collerette brodée, riait à sa mère quand elle l’appelait, en s’apercevant qu’elle riait elle-même de cette rébellion enfantine […]

Synonyms

s’esclafferrigolerse bidonnerse marrerse poilerse taper des barresrire de bon cœur

Antonyms

pleurer

This word in other languages

laugh(English)reír(Español)lachen(Deutsch)rir(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • irre
  • rier
  • rirre
  • rrie
  • rrire

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

irre2rier2rirre1rrie2rrire1
Edit distance from "rire"

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 "rire"?
"rire" is spelled R-I-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ʁiʁ\.
What does "rire" mean?
As a verb, "rire" means: Marquer un sentiment de gaieté par un mouvement de la bouche accompagné souvent de bruit et par une expression correspondante des regards et des traits du visage.
What words are commonly confused with "rire"?
"rire" is commonly confused with "rue", "riz", "ris". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "rire"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "rire" is \ʁiʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "rire" come from?
"rire" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "rire", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

sœur#1,380noms#1,396acte#1,353Noël#1,397

Similar misspelling depth

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

mari5 variantstuer5 variantscoin5 variantsvenu5 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list