gendarme
/ʒɒnˈdɑːm/
"gendarme" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“gendarme” is uncommon English (frequency #70,693 among 18,276 “G” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #70,693
- frequency rank, English
- 18,276
- “G” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A member of the gendarmerie, a military body charged with police duties.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | gendarme |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ʒɒnˈdɑːm/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #70,693 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “gendarme” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
gendarme is uncommon English at frequency #70,693 among 18,276 “G” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ʒɒnˈdɑːm/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for gendarme, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from French gendarme, from plural gendarmes, a re-spelling of gens d'armes (“people of arms", "armed people”). The correct English form is gendarme, spelled G-E-N-D-A-R-M-E.
Definition
- 1A member of the gendarmerie, a military body charged with police duties.
- 2A policeman.
- 3A rock pinnacle on a mountain ridge.
Etymology
Borrowed from French gendarme, from plural gendarmes, a re-spelling of gens d'armes (“people of arms", "armed people”).
Synonyms
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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Using “gendarme”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is G-E-N-D-A-R-M-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ʒɒnˈdɑːm/ (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.