alarm

\əˈlɑːm\

/\əˈlɑːm\/ noun

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

The verdict

“alarm” is uncommon French (frequency #80,840 among 6,727 “A” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#80,840
frequency rank, French
6,727
“A” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Alarme, alerte.

Corpus desk

Index FR-alarm · alarm · French

alarm · rank #80,840 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #80,840
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,727
  • PHOTO-FINISH alek

Nearest frequency peer: alek (+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 « alarm »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for alarm
PropertyValue
Headwordalarm
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\əˈlɑːm\
Letters5
Frequency rank#80,840
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « alarm » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).alarmtombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « alek » (#80,841), « akan » (#80,838), « akademie » (#80,837). Parmi 6,727 lemmes en « A », « alarm » est au #80,840. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

alarm is uncommon French at frequency #80,840 among 6,727 “A” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \əˈlɑːm\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.

No generated misspelling entries exist for alarm in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, 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 alarm, spelled A-L-A-R-M.

Definition

  1. 1
    Alarme, alerte.
  2. 2
    Sirène, timbre, timbre avertisseur.
  3. 3
    Réveil-matin, réveil.
  4. 4
    Effarement, crainte, peur, appréhension.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. False alarm. Sound the alarm. Alarm cannon. Alarm bell.

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 "alarm"?
"alarm" is spelled A-L-A-R-M. The IPA pronunciation is \əˈlɑːm\.
What does "alarm" mean?
As a noun, "alarm" means: Alarme, alerte.
How do you pronounce "alarm"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "alarm" is \əˈlɑːm\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "alarm" come from?
"alarm" 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 "alarm", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

amibe#80,854Aarau#80,819Arndt#80,874épile#80,806

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list