baba
\ba.ba\
The verdict
“baba” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #14,860 in French word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #14,860
- frequency rank, French
- 4
- letters
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Frappé d'un vif étonnement, ébahi.
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 | baba |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \ba.ba\ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #14,860 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “baba” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for baba is 4 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ba.ba\. Corpus data places it at rank #14,860 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Frappé d'un vif étonnement, ébahi.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for baba, with forms such as "baab", "babba", and "bbaa". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "bb", "bas", "bah", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is baba, spelled B-A-B-A.
Definition
- 1Frappé d'un vif étonnement, ébahi.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: baab,babba,bbaa,bbaba
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of baba - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 “baba”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is B-A-B-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ba.ba\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “bb” - see the side-by-side comparison. baba vs bb
- 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.