balle
\bal\
The verdict
“balle” is a regularly-used French word, ranked #2,067 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #2,067
- frequency rank, French
- 5
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Objet sphérique utilisé pour jouer.
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 | balle |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \bal\ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #2,067 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “balle” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for balle is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \bal\. Corpus data places it at rank #2,067 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 8 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for balle, with forms such as "ablle", "bale", and "balel". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "blé", "Base", "blue", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Our source data has no etymology on file 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 balle, spelled B-A-L-L-E.
Definition
- 1Objet sphérique utilisé pour jouer.
- 2Conditionnement de matières premières agricoles comme le foin, le coton ou le chanvre.
- 3Conditionnement quelconque.
- 4Projectile d’arme à feu.
- 5(Surtout au pluriel) Franc, euro, centime ou n’importe quelle unité monétaire courante.
- 6Lancer jugé hors de la zone de prises.
- 7Objet de jonglage.
- 8Dans le passé, tampon avec lequel on appliquait l’encre sur les caractères : il était formé d’un manche de bois, évasé en entonnoir, dont le creux était rempli de laine que recouvrait une double peau.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ablle,bale,balel,bballe,blale
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of balle - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "balle"?
What does "balle" mean?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “balle”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is B-A-L-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \bal\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “blé” - see the side-by-side comparison. balle vs blé
- 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.