unique
\y.nik\
The verdict
“unique” is in the everyday core of French, ranked #990 in French word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #990
- frequency rank, French
- 6
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Qui est seul en son genre.
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 | unique |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \y.nik\ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #990 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “unique” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for unique is 6 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \y.nik\. Corpus data places it at rank #990 in overall French word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for unique, with forms such as "nuique", "uinque", and "uniqeu". 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 5 confusable-pair relationships, "unité", "uniques", "unie", and more, 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, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is unique, spelled U-N-I-Q-U-E.
Definition
- 1Qui est seul en son genre.
- 2Désigne un objet mathématique qui est le seul à vérifier une propriété, éventuellement à transformations près.
- 3Qui est de beaucoup au-dessus des autres et auquel les autres ne peuvent être comparés.
- 4Se dit d’un homme ridicule, d’un extravagant, pour dire qu’il n’a pas son semblable.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: nuique,uinque,uniqeu,uniqque,uniuqe,unnique,unqiue
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of unique - 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
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Using “unique”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is U-N-I-Q-U-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \y.nik\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “unité” - see the side-by-side comparison. unique vs unité
- 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.