ban
\bɑ̃\
The verdict
“ban” is a regularly-used French word, ranked #6,466 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #6,466
- frequency rank, French
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Proclamation pour ordonner ou défendre quelque chose.
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 | ban |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \bɑ̃\ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #6,466 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ban” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for ban is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \bɑ̃\. Corpus data places it at rank #6,466 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for ban, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "by", "be", "BD", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is ban, spelled B-A-N.
Definition
- 1Proclamation pour ordonner ou défendre quelque chose.
- 2Publication par voie d’affiches à la porte de la mairie, ou d’un lieu de culte, d’une promesse de mariage entre deux personnes.
- 3Convocation par le suzerain des nobles pour le servir à la guerre, soit eux-mêmes en personne, soit par un certain nombre de gens armés, proportionnellement au revenu et à la qualité de chaque fief.
- 4Le corps même de la noblesse qui pouvait être ainsi convoqué.
- 5Exil imposé à quelqu’un par proclamation.
- 6Territoire communal.
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
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Using “ban”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is B-A-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \bɑ̃\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “by” - see the side-by-side comparison. ban vs by
- 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.