Atacama

\a.ta.ka.ma\

/\a.ta.ka.ma\/ name

The verdict

“Atacama” is uncommon French (frequency #62,789 among 6,727 “A” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#62,789
frequency rank, French
6,727
“A” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Désert hyperaride situé au Chili en Amérique du Sud. Désert d’Atacama.

Corpus desk

Index FR-atacama · Atacama · French

Atacama · rank #62,789 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #62,789
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,727
  • PHOTO-FINISH astruc

Nearest frequency peer: astruc (-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 « Atacama »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for Atacama
PropertyValue
HeadwordAtacama
LanguageFrench
Part of speechProper noun
IPA\a.ta.ka.ma\
Letters7
Frequency rank#62,789
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « Atacama » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.Atacamatombe 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: « astruc » (#62,788), « atterrés » (#62,790), « assyrienne » (#62,787). Parmi 6,727 lemmes en « A », « Atacama » est au #62,789. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Atacama is uncommon French at frequency #62,789 among 6,727 “A” headwords, classed as aproper noun, transcribed \a.ta.ka.ma\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 6 senses are on record.

Zero misspellings are on record for Atacama in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is Atacama, spelled A-T-A-C-A-M-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    Désert hyperaride situé au Chili en Amérique du Sud. Désert d’Atacama.
  2. 2
    Salar situé dans le désert du même nom.
  3. 3
    Puna, altiplano situé à cheval sur le chili et l’Argentine à la latitude du désert d’Atacama.
  4. 4
    Région du Chili située dans le nord du pays.
  5. 5
    Autre nom de la fosse du Pérou-Chili (fosse d'Atacama).
  6. 6
    Nom donné à l’astéroïde nᵒ 18725.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Cela augmenterait bien sûr le coût d’extraction du lithium dans l’Atacama.
  2. L’immense Atacama s’ouvre aux portes des plaines fertiles du Chili central, dès qu’on franchit le rio Paposo.

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 "Atacama"?
"Atacama" is spelled A-T-A-C-A-M-A. The IPA pronunciation is \a.ta.ka.ma\.
What does "Atacama" mean?
As a proper noun, "Atacama" means: Désert hyperaride situé au Chili en Amérique du Sud. Désert d’Atacama.
How do you pronounce "Atacama"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "Atacama" is \a.ta.ka.ma\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "Atacama" come from?
"Atacama" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "Atacama", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list