barely
\ˈbɛɹ.li\
The verdict
“barely” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adverb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Ne … guère, à peine.
Corpus desk
Index FR-barely · barely · French
barely · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "B" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | barely |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | \ˈbɛɹ.li\ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « barely » en français
Rare enough to double-check
barely is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anadverb, transcribed \ˈbɛɹ.li\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
barely doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is barely, spelled B-A-R-E-L-Y.
Definition
- 1Ne … guère, à peine.
- 2De justesse.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.