raconteur
/ˌɹæk.ɒnˈtəː/
"raconteur" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“raconteur” is uncommon English (frequency #81,735 among 3,094 “R” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #81,735
- frequency rank, English
- 3,094
- “R” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A storyteller, especially a person noted for telling stories with skill and wit.
Corpus desk
Index EN-raconteur · raconteur · English
raconteur · rank #81,735 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #81,735
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,094
- PHOTO-FINISH quilty
Nearest frequency peer: quilty (-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 “raconteur”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Purley
Purley
18,271 corpus weight
- Pusey
Pusey
18,270 corpus weight
- quilty
quilty
18,267 corpus weight
- raconteur
raconteur
18,266 corpus weight
- Radi
Radi
18,265 corpus weight
- radionuclide
radionuclide
18,264 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “raconteur” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | raconteur |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˌɹæk.ɒnˈtəː/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #81,735 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “raconteur” in English
Rare enough to double-check
raconteur is uncommon English at frequency #81,735 among 3,094 “R” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˌɹæk.ɒnˈtəː/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A storyteller, especially a person noted for telling stories with skill and wit.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for raconteur, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from French raconteur. The correct English form is raconteur, spelled R-A-C-O-N-T-E-U-R.
Definition
- 1A storyteller, especially a person noted for telling stories with skill and wit.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how raconteur appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
He was tempted to try the last door—to look into the room of evil fame; but he reflected that this would be indiscreet, since Colonel Capadose handled the brush—as a raconteur—with such freedom. There might be a ghost and there might not; but the Colonel himself, he inclined to think, was the most mystifying figure in the house.
It is notoriously possible for the author of a fictitious narrative to become, after a time, unable to distinguish it from a statement of actual facts. There is a case on record in which a learned judge communicated to the Psychical Society in perfect good faith a ghost story, all the principal features of which were proved to be imaginary. They had their…
Etymology
Borrowed from French raconteur.
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 "raconteur", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).