acerbus
The verdict
“acerbus” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 7
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Sévère, austère.
Corpus desk
Index FR-acerbus · acerbus · French
acerbus · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "A" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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 | acerbus |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 7 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « acerbus » en français
Rare enough to double-check
acerbus is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 6 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for acerbus in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is acerbus, spelled A-C-E-R-B-U-S.
Definition
- 1Sévère, austère.
- 2Prématuré.
- 3Cruel, méchant, atroce.
- 4Amer, âcre.
- 5Agaçant, importun.
- 6Acerbe, âpre.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how acerbus appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
acerba in partus
acerbus partus
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.