tête de pont
\tɛt də pɔ̃\
The verdict
“tête de pont” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Ouvrage placé en avant d’un pont pour en défendre l’accès aux ennemis.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | tête de pont |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \tɛt də pɔ̃\ |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “tête de pont” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for tête de pont is 12 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \tɛt də pɔ̃\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No misspelling variants are generated for tête de pont in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
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 tête de pont, spelled T-Ê-T-E- -D-E- -P-O-N-T, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Ouvrage placé en avant d’un pont pour en défendre l’accès aux ennemis.
- 2Zone conquise à l'intérieur d'un territoire ennemi et facilitant les opérations de déploiement des troupes et matériels.
- 3Emplacement réservé servant de base de ravitaillement, de transport et d'évacuation d’une force armée par les airs.
- 4Zone conquise en territoire ennemi par des troupes aéroportées et permettant l’aéroportage de troupes et de matériels.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Cite this page
Free to reuse with attribution (CC BY-SA). Copy the citation:
PlainSpell, “tête de pont, French word data” (May 6, 2026). Derived from Wiktionary (kaikki.org, CC BY-SA) and an open word-frequency list. https://plainspell.com/fr/mot/tete-de-pont
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “tête de pont”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is T-Ê-T-E- -D-E- -P-O-N-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \tɛt də pɔ̃\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Nearby French words
Other entries that begin with the letter T in our French index: