âne
\an\
The verdict
“âne” is a regularly-used French word, ranked #9,577 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #9,577
- frequency rank, French
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Mammifère robuste de la famille des équidés, plus petit que le cheval mais qui possède de plus longues oreilles. Son petit est l’ânon. Son cri est le braiment (du verbe braire). Le croisement d’un ...
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | âne |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \an\ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #9,577 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “âne” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for âne is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \an\. Corpus data places it at rank #9,577 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
âne has no tracked misspelling variants, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "au", "As", "at", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is âne, spelled Â-N-E.
Definition
- 1Mammifère robuste de la famille des équidés, plus petit que le cheval mais qui possède de plus longues oreilles. Son petit est l’ânon. Son cri est le braiment (du verbe braire). Le croisement d’un âne avec une jument donne un mulet ; le croisement d’un cheval avec une ânesse donne un bardot.
- 2Personne à l’esprit lourd et grossier, d’une grande ignorance.
- 3Étau d’ébéniste, aussi nommé esteau.
- 4Meuble représentant l’animal du même nom. Il est généralement représenté de profil et passant.
- 5Désigne une personne cuistre, ou ignorante et sotte.
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
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Using “âne”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is Â-N-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \an\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “au” - see the side-by-side comparison. âne vs au
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.