ACAB

\a.kab\

/\a.kab\/ phrase

The verdict

“ACAB” is uncommon French (frequency #69,566 among 6,727 “A” headwords), classed as a phrase. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#69,566
frequency rank, French
6,727
“A” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - « Tous les flics sont des salauds », slogan anti-police.

Corpus desk

Index FR-acab · ACAB · French

ACAB · rank #69,566 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #69,566
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,727
  • PHOTO-FINISH abysse

Nearest frequency peer: abysse (-1 rank slots)

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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « ACAB »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « ACAB » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for ACAB
PropertyValue
HeadwordACAB
LanguageFrench
Part of speechPhrase
IPA\a.kab\
Letters4
Frequency rank#69,566
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « ACAB » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).ACABtombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « abysse » (#69,565), « accéléra » (#69,567), « abrupts » (#69,564). Parmi 6,727 lemmes en « A », « ACAB » est au #69,566. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

ACAB is uncommon French at frequency #69,566 among 6,727 “A” headwords, classed as aphrase, transcribed \a.kab\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "« Tous les flics sont des salauds », slogan anti-police.".

ACAB has no tracked misspelling variants, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is ACAB, spelled A-C-A-B.

Definition

  1. 1
    « Tous les flics sont des salauds », slogan anti-police.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how ACAB appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Au fil des jours, les murs de l’artère sont recouverts de représentations de martyrs, de slogans antiCSFA, de géants ACAB (All Cops Are Bastards) et de fresques en l’honneur de chaque groupe d’ultras.
  2. Sur les murs de la capitale, chaque lendemain de défilé des « gilets jaunes », les services de la mairie s’affairent à effacer les tags « Tout le monde déteste la police » ou autre « ACAB » (acronyme de « All cops are bastards », « tous les flics sont des bâtards »).

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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "ACAB"?
"ACAB" is spelled A-C-A-B. The IPA pronunciation is \a.kab\.
What does "ACAB" mean?
As a phrase, "ACAB" means: « Tous les flics sont des salauds », slogan anti-police.
How do you pronounce "ACAB"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "ACAB" is \a.kab\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "ACAB" come from?
"ACAB" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "ACAB", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list