vertu
\vɛʁ.ty\
The verdict
“vertu” is a regularly-used French word, ranked #3,884 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #3,884
- frequency rank, French
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Disposition ferme, constante de l’âme, qui porte à faire le bien et à fuir le mal.
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 | vertu |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \vɛʁ.ty\ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #3,884 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “vertu” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for vertu is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \vɛʁ.ty\. Corpus data places it at rank #3,884 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 6 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 vertu, with forms such as "evrtu", "verrtu", and "verttu". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "veut", "vêtu", "very", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, 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 vertu, spelled V-E-R-T-U.
Definition
- 1Disposition ferme, constante de l’âme, qui porte à faire le bien et à fuir le mal.
- 2Personne vertueuse.
- 3Dispositions particulières propres à telle ou telle sorte de devoirs ou de bonnes actions.
- 4Chasteté, pudicité, surtout en parlant des femmes.
- 5Pouvoir de produire un certain effet.
- 6Un des chœurs de la hiérarchie des anges.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: evrtu,verrtu,verttu,verut,vetru,vretu,vvertu
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of vertu - 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.
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 "vertu"?
What does "vertu" mean?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “vertu”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is V-E-R-T-U - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \vɛʁ.ty\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “veut” - see the side-by-side comparison. vertu vs veut
- 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.