barrette
/bəˈɹɛt/
"barrette" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“barrette” is uncommon English (frequency #85,021 among 4,121 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #85,021
- frequency rank, English
- 4,121
- “B” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A clasp or clip for gathering and holding the hair.
Corpus desk
Index EN-barrette · barrette · English
barrette · rank #85,021 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #85,021
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,121
- PHOTO-FINISH Barolo
Nearest frequency peer: Barolo (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
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.
Long-tail ranks near “barrette”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Baltistan
Baltistan
14,985 corpus weight
- bandgap
bandgap
14,984 corpus weight
- barger
barger
14,982 corpus weight
- Barolo
Barolo
14,981 corpus weight
- barrette
barrette
14,980 corpus weight
- Batam
Batam
14,977 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “barrette” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | barrette |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /bəˈɹɛt/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #85,021 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “barrette” in English
Rare enough to double-check
barrette is uncommon English at frequency #85,021 among 4,121 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /bəˈɹɛt/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for barrette, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from French barrette, from barre (“a bar”) + -ette, literally a small bar. The correct English form is barrette, spelled B-A-R-R-E-T-T-E.
Definition
- 1A clasp or clip for gathering and holding the hair.
- 2A bar used to mount medals of chivalric orders.
- 3Synonym of katepimeron.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how barrette appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Growing sleepy, Rabbit stops before midnight at a roadside café for coffee. Somehow, though he can't put his finger on the difference, he is unlike the other customers. They sense it too, and look at him with hard eyes, eyes like little metal studs pinned into the white faces of young men sitting in zippered jackets in booths three to a girl, the girls wi…
Etymology
Borrowed from French barrette, from barre (“a bar”) + -ette, literally a small bar.
This word in other languages
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "barrette", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).