canaille
[kanɑ(ː)j]
The verdict
“canaille” is uncommon German (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency German
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Menge heruntergekommener, krimineller Menschen
Corpus desk
Index DE-canaille · canaille · German
canaille · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "C" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | canaille |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | [kanɑ(ː)j] |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Langschwanz-Rang von „canaille“ im Deutschen
Rare enough to double-check
canaille is uncommon German outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed [kanɑ(ː)j]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for canaille, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable German rules. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct German form is canaille, spelled C-A-N-A-I-L-L-E.
Definition
- 1Menge heruntergekommener, krimineller Menschen
- 2pfiffiger, aber übler Typ
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how canaille appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Il n'y avait que de la canaille.
Quelle canaille !
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.