wait
\ˈweɪt\
The verdict
“wait” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #18,370 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #18,370
- frequency rank, French
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Attente.
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 | wait |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ˈweɪt\ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #18,370 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “wait” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for wait is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ˈweɪt\. Corpus data places it at rank #18,370 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Attente.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for wait, with forms such as "awit", "waitt", and "wati". 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, "was", "way", "war", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is wait, spelled W-A-I-T.
Definition
- 1Attente.
Synonyms
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: awit,waitt,wati,wiat,wwait
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of wait - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 “wait”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is W-A-I-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ˈweɪt\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “was” - see the side-by-side comparison. wait vs was
- 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.