ache

\aʃ\

/\aʃ\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“ache” is uncommon French (frequency #63,490 among 6,727 “A” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#63,490
frequency rank, French
6,727
“A” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Nom usuel des trois variétés dApium graveolens, plantes qui ressemblent au persil, de la famille Apiaceae (Apiacées) dont on consomme les tiges sous le nom de céleri (Apium graveolens var. dulce), ...

Corpus desk

Index FR-ache · ache · French

ache · rank #63,490 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #63,490
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,727
  • PHOTO-FINISH accédait

Nearest frequency peer: accédait (-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 « ache »

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 « ache » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for ache
PropertyValue
Headwordache
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\aʃ\
Letters4
Frequency rank#63,490
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « ache » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.achetombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « accédait » (#63,489), « added » (#63,491), « accueillez » (#63,488). Parmi 6,727 lemmes en « A », « ache » est au #63,490. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

ache is uncommon French at frequency #63,490 among 6,727 “A” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \aʃ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

No generated misspelling entries exist for ache in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is ache, spelled A-C-H-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Nom usuel des trois variétés dApium graveolens, plantes qui ressemblent au persil, de la famille Apiaceae (Apiacées) dont on consomme les tiges sous le nom de céleri (Apium graveolens var. dulce), les feuilles sous le nom de céleri chinois (Apium graveolens var. secalinum) et sa tige tubérisée sous le nom de céleri-rave (Apium graveolens L. var. rapaceum)
  2. 2
    Nom donné à de nombreuses plantes de divers genres, toutes de la famille des Apiaceae, mais à chaque fois ache est accompagné d'un épithète. (voir la liste "dérivés")
  3. 3
    Fleuron ornant les couronnes ducales.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Dans certains jeux de la Grèce, on donnait une couronne d’ache au vainqueur.
  2. Le tortil du baron, les feuilles d’aches et les perles du marquis valent bien les pointes de la couronne ducale, quand la race est ancienne et la filiation pure de tout mélange.

This word in other languages

ach(English)

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 "ache"?
"ache" is spelled A-C-H-E. The IPA pronunciation is \aʃ\.
What does "ache" mean?
As a noun, "ache" means: Nom usuel des trois variétés dApium graveolens, plantes qui ressemblent au persil, de la famille Apiaceae (Apiacées) dont on consomme les tiges sous le nom de céleri (Apium graveolens var. dulce), ...
How do you pronounce "ache"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "ache" is \aʃ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "ache" come from?
"ache" 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 "ache", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

Aral#63,516arco#63,520warp#63,456tear#63,403

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list