ballottage

\ba.lɔ.taʒ\

/\ba.lɔ.taʒ\/ noun

The verdict

“ballottage” is uncommon French (frequency #50,077 among 4,251 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#50,077
frequency rank, French
4,251
“B” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Vote avec des ballottes.

Corpus desk

Index FR-ballottage · ballottage · French

ballottage · rank #50,077 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #50,077
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,251
  • PHOTO-FINISH Bagnols

Nearest frequency peer: Bagnols (-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 « ballottage »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for ballottage
PropertyValue
Headwordballottage
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ba.lɔ.taʒ\
Letters10
Frequency rank#50,077
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « ballottage » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.ballottagetombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « Bagnols » (#50,076), « bandelettes » (#50,078), « bands » (#50,079). Parmi 4,251 lemmes en « B », « ballottage » est au #50,077. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

ballottage is uncommon French at frequency #50,077 among 4,251 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ba.lɔ.taʒ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

No generated misspelling entries exist for ballottage in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is ballottage, spelled B-A-L-L-O-T-T-A-G-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Vote avec des ballottes.
  2. 2
    Action de ballotter des candidats et de les renvoyer à un second tour de scrutin.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Le scrutin de ballottage entre M. Du Pavillon et moi a donné la majorité à M. Du Pavillon, qui l'a emporté à cinq voix. — (Maine de Biran, Journal, 1816)
  2. Quand fut achevé le dépouillement, on constata qu’il y avait 47 bulletins pour les Rouges et 47 bulletins pour les Blancs. Le président, abasourdi, et son bureau ahuri, prononcèrent le ballottage.

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 "ballottage"?
"ballottage" is spelled B-A-L-L-O-T-T-A-G-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ba.lɔ.taʒ\.
What does "ballottage" mean?
As a noun, "ballottage" means: Vote avec des ballottes.
How do you pronounce "ballottage"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "ballottage" is \ba.lɔ.taʒ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "ballottage" come from?
"ballottage" 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 "ballottage", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list