calque
/kælk/
"calque" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“calque” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A word or phrase in a language formed by word-for-word or morpheme-by-morpheme translation of a word in another language.
Corpus desk
Index EN-calque · calque · English
calque · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "C" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | calque |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kælk/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “calque” in English
Rare enough to double-check
calque is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /kælk/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A word or phrase in a language formed by word-for-word or morpheme-by-morpheme translation of a word in another language.".
calque doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From French calque (“calque”, literally “copy, tracing”), from calquer (“to copy, trace”) (whence also calk), itself borrowed from Italian calcare, from Latin calcāre (“to tread”). Doublet of calcate and calcation. The correct English form is calque, spelled C-A-L-Q-U-E.
Definition
- 1A word or phrase in a language formed by word-for-word or morpheme-by-morpheme translation of a word in another language.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how calque appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
David S. Powers, professor of Islamic history and law at Cornell, says he thinks that the word as used today is in the nature of what linguists call a calque, a borrowing from another language in literal translation […]
Those phrases, translated from Spanish, are known as calques. […] The three young Miamians in the video also use “super” as an adverb, one of the calques from Spanish mentioned in Dr. Carter’s research. (“Ay, I’m super bloated.”)
Etymology
From French calque (“calque”, literally “copy, tracing”), from calquer (“to copy, trace”) (whence also calk), itself borrowed from Italian calcare, from Latin calcāre (“to tread”). Doublet of calcate and calcation.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.