unique
\y.nik\
The verdict
“unique” has 7 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #990. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #990
- frequency rank, French
- 456
- “U” headwords
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui est seul en son genre.
Corpus desk
Index FR-unique · unique · French
unique · rank #990 · 7 variants · 5 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #990
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 5 pairs
- VAR-MID 7 variants
- BOOK-MID 456
- PHOTO-FINISH territoire
Nearest frequency peer: territoire (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “unique”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- rendez
rendez
99,014 corpus weight
- telle
telle
99,013 corpus weight
- territoire
territoire
99,012 corpus weight
- unique
unique
99,011 corpus weight
- vente
vente
99,010 corpus weight
- via
via
99,009 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “unique” sits against the nearest ranked French headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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) |
Où “unique” se place dans la fréquence du français
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 7 spelling variants around unique (IPA \y.nik\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #990 among 456 “U” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
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.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how unique appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
A onze heures il arrivait à Fresnay-les-Chaumes, déjeunait à l’unique bouchon de ce hameau de Pithiviers-le-Vieil, d'un chanteau de pain bis et d'un hareng saur, additionnés d'un petit vin du pays qui lui fit faire une de ces grimaces !
Pour unique réponse, Geisha s'étira paresseusement et demanda une cigarette.
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
How do you spell "unique"?
What does "unique" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "unique"?
How do you pronounce "unique"?
What language does "unique" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "unique", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "unique". Here's where to go from here.
- "unique" maps to 5 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "unité". View pair
- 7 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #990 among French headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more French words in the "U" letter cohort. U–Z browse
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.