sympathique
\sɛ̃.pa.tik\
The verdict
“sympathique” is a regularly-used French word, ranked #5,816 in French word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #5,816
- frequency rank, French
- 11
- letters
- 17
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Relatif à la sympathie.
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 | sympathique |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \sɛ̃.pa.tik\ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Frequency rank | #5,816 |
| Misspellings tracked | 17 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “sympathique” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for sympathique is 11 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \sɛ̃.pa.tik\. Corpus data places it at rank #5,816 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 17 likely wrong-spelling variants for sympathique, with forms such as "smypathique", "ssympathique", and "symapthique". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "sympathiques", "sympathie", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is sympathique, spelled S-Y-M-P-A-T-H-I-Q-U-E.
Definition
- 1Relatif à la sympathie.
- 2Qui inspire la sympathie.
- 3Qui agit indirectement.
- 4Qualifie une encre sans couleur qui apparaît lorsqu’on présente le papier à la chaleur ou qu’on y applique quelque agent chimique.
- 5Relatif à la partie du système nerveux autonome responsable du contrôle d’un grand nombre d’activités inconscientes de l’organisme, telles que le rythme cardiaque, la contraction des muscles lisses, etc.
- 6Qualifie une corde qui, sur un instrument, résonne sans avoir été jouée, par sympathie avec la corde qui l’a été.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: smypathique,ssympathique,symapthique,symmpathique,sympahtique,sympathhique,sympathiqeu,sympathiqque,sympathiuqe,sympathqiue,sympatihque,sympatthique,symppathique,symptahique,sypmathique,syympathique,ysmpathique
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of sympathique - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "sympathique"?
What does "sympathique" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "sympathique"?
How do you pronounce "sympathique"?
What language does "sympathique" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “sympathique”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is S-Y-M-P-A-T-H-I-Q-U-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \sɛ̃.pa.tik\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “sympathiques” - see the side-by-side comparison. sympathique vs sympathiques
- 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.