abbé
/æˈbeɪ/
"abbe" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“abbé” is uncommon English (frequency #54,591 among 35,202 “A” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #54,591
- frequency rank, English
- 35,202
- “A” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A low-ranking member of the Roman Catholic clergy in France who is not a member of a religious order, is not a priest, and can marry and inherit property; an honorific title for such a clergymember.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | abbé |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /æˈbeɪ/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #54,591 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “abbé” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
abbé is uncommon English at frequency #54,591 among 35,202 “A” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /æˈbeɪ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for abbé in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Unadapted borrowing from French abbé (“abbot”), from Latin abbās (“abbot”). Doublet of abbot. The correct English form is abbé, spelled A-B-B-É.
Definition
- 1A low-ranking member of the Roman Catholic clergy in France who is not a member of a religious order, is not a priest, and can marry and inherit property; an honorific title for such a clergymember.
- 2A French abbot, the (male) head of an abbey.
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from French abbé (“abbot”), from Latin abbās (“abbot”). Doublet of abbot.
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 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “abbé”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is A-B-B-É - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /æˈbeɪ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.