terrain
\tɛ.ʁɛ̃\
The verdict
“terrain” is in the everyday core of French, ranked #890 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #890
- frequency rank, French
- 7
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 8
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Terre, sol considéré par rapport à sa nature, à sa composition, à sa forme.
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 | terrain |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \tɛ.ʁɛ̃\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #890 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 8 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “terrain” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for terrain is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \tɛ.ʁɛ̃\. Corpus data places it at rank #890 in overall French word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for terrain, with forms such as "etrrain", "terain", and "terarin". 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 8 confusable-pair relationships, "train", "terri", "terroir", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is terrain, spelled T-E-R-R-A-I-N.
Definition
- 1Terre, sol considéré par rapport à sa nature, à sa composition, à sa forme.
- 2Espace de terre, défini par son emplacement ou sa délimitation.
- 3Lieu où se déroule une action.
- 4Terrain de jeu.
- 5Piste qu’on suit dans le manège.
- 6Ensemble de différentes couches de terre par rapport à leur ancienneté et à leur nature.
- 7Ensemble des parties d’un paysage qui représentent la terre nue ou seulement revêtue d’herbes.
- 8Ensemble de facteurs propices ou néfastes à quelque chose.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: etrrain,terain,terarin,terrainn,terrani,terrian,trerain,tterrain
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of terrain - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "terrain"?
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Using “terrain”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is T-E-R-R-A-I-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \tɛ.ʁɛ̃\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “train” - see the side-by-side comparison. terrain vs train
- 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.