trace

\tʁas\

/\tʁas\/ noun

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

The verdict

“trace” has 7 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #3,369. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#3,369
frequency rank, French
3,703
“T” headwords
7
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Marque ou empreinte laissée sur le sol par le passage d’une personne, d’un animal ou d’un objet.

Corpus desk

Index FR-trace · trace · French

trace · rank #3,369 · 7 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #3,369
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 7 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,703
  • PHOTO-FINISH team

Nearest frequency peer: team (-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 « trace »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « trace » 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).

trace vs tre
60% similar
trace vs truc
60% similar
trace vs tram
60% similar

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

Key facts for trace
PropertyValue
Headwordtrace
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\tʁas\
Letters5
Frequency rank#3,369
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « trace »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).tracese place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « team » (#3,368), « vins » (#3,370), « supplémentaire » (#3,367). Parmi 3,703 lemmes en « T », « trace » est au #3,369. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 7 spelling variants around trace (IPA \tʁas\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #3,369 among 3,703 “T” headwords. Wiktionary lists 11 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for trace, with forms such as "rtace", "tarce", and "tracce". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "tre", "truc", "tram", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is trace, spelled T-R-A-C-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Marque ou empreinte laissée sur le sol par le passage d’une personne, d’un animal ou d’un objet.
  2. 2
    Marque qui résulte d’une action.
  3. 3
    Impression laissée par un événement.
  4. 4
    Ce qui subsiste en faible quantité ou en moindre proportion.
  5. 5
    Preuve matérielle.
  6. 6
    Somme des éléments diagonaux d’une matrice carrée.
  7. 7
    Dessin de fils servant d’armature générale dans la dentelle à l’aiguille.
  8. 8
    Position vide d’où un syntagme a été déplacé.
  9. 9
    Représentation de l’exécution d’un programme.
  10. 10
    Gros papier gris autrefois utilisé pour la fabrication des cartes à jouer.
  11. 11
    Dose de drogue prête à être insufflée à des fins récréatives.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Voyez-vous la trace de l’oiseau qui passait tout à l’heure ? eh ! bien, mes actions, pures comme l’air est pur, n’en laissent pas davantage.
  2. A Beduaram il entre dans cette vaste et monotone plaine saharienne, sans végétation et où l’empreinte même de l’animal ne laisse qu’une trace insensible que le moindre vent efface.

This word in other languages

trace(English)traza(Español)Spur(Deutsch)vestígio(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • rtace
  • tarce
  • tracce
  • traec
  • trcae
  • trrace
  • ttrace

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of trace - 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.

rtace2tarce2tracce1traec2trcae2trrace1ttrace1
Edit distance from "trace"

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 "trace"?
"trace" is spelled T-R-A-C-E. The IPA pronunciation is \tʁas\.
What does "trace" mean?
As a noun, "trace" means: Marque ou empreinte laissée sur le sol par le passage d’une personne, d’un animal ou d’un objet.
What words are commonly confused with "trace"?
"trace" is commonly confused with "tre", "truc", "tram". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "trace"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "trace" is \tʁas\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "trace" come from?
"trace" 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "trace", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

seuil#3,364canon#3,385carré#3,386Chris#3,391

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).

accent7 variantsbassin7 variantsmajor7 variantsmarge7 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list