baobab

\ba.ɔ.bab\

/\ba.ɔ.bab\/ noun

The verdict

“baobab” is uncommon French (frequency #50,080 among 4,251 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#50,080
frequency rank, French
4,251
“B” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Arbre de grande taille de la famille des Malvacées poussant dans les pays tropicaux.

Corpus desk

Index FR-baobab · baobab · French

baobab · rank #50,080 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #50,080
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,251
  • PHOTO-FINISH bands

Nearest frequency peer: bands (-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 « baobab »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for baobab
PropertyValue
Headwordbaobab
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ba.ɔ.bab\
Letters6
Frequency rank#50,080
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « baobab » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.baobabtombe 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: « bands » (#50,079), « barracuda » (#50,081), « bandelettes » (#50,078). Parmi 4,251 lemmes en « B », « baobab » est au #50,080. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

baobab is uncommon French at frequency #50,080 among 4,251 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ba.ɔ.bab\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

baobab doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, 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 baobab, spelled B-A-O-B-A-B.

Definition

  1. 1
    Arbre de grande taille de la famille des Malvacées poussant dans les pays tropicaux.
  2. 2
    Genre d’arbres tropicaux à feuillage caduc de la famille des Malvacées dont le nom scientifique est Andonsonia L..

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Le fruit du baobab, qui est comestible, se nomme le pain de singe.
  2. Les baobabs, avant de grandir, ça commence par être petit.

Synonyms

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 "baobab"?
"baobab" is spelled B-A-O-B-A-B. The IPA pronunciation is \ba.ɔ.bab\.
What does "baobab" mean?
As a noun, "baobab" means: Arbre de grande taille de la famille des Malvacées poussant dans les pays tropicaux.
How do you pronounce "baobab"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "baobab" is \ba.ɔ.bab\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "baobab" come from?
"baobab" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 "baobab", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list