balsa
\bal.za\
The verdict
“balsa” is an uncommon French word, ranked #92,458 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #92,458
- frequency rank, French
- 5
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Nom vernaculaire de Ochroma pyramidale, arbre de la famille des Malvacées (Malvaceae). originaire des forêts équatoriales du Yucatan, d’Amérique centrale et d’Amérique du Sud, pouvant atteindre 30 ...
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | balsa |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \bal.za\ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #92,458 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “balsa” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for balsa is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \bal.za\. Corpus data places it at rank #92,458 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
balsa has no tracked misspelling variants, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is balsa, spelled B-A-L-S-A.
Definition
- 1Nom vernaculaire de Ochroma pyramidale, arbre de la famille des Malvacées (Malvaceae). originaire des forêts équatoriales du Yucatan, d’Amérique centrale et d’Amérique du Sud, pouvant atteindre 30 mètres de haut en seulement 8 ans, dont le bois est plus léger que le liège.
- 2Bois provenant de cet arbre ayant une densité très faible.
- 3Radeau en Amérique latine.
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.
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Using “balsa”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is B-A-L-S-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \bal.za\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- 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.