belon

\bə.lɔ̃\

/\bə.lɔ̃\/ noun

The verdict

“belon” is uncommon French (frequency #71,280 among 4,251 “B” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#71,280
frequency rank, French
4,251
“B” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Appellation autrefois réservée aux seules huîtres matures élevées en parcs à Riec-sur-Bélon en Bretagne.

Corpus desk

Index FR-belon · belon · French

belon · rank #71,280 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #71,280
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 4,251
  • PHOTO-FINISH Bazile

Nearest frequency peer: Bazile (-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 « belon »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for belon
PropertyValue
Headwordbelon
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\bə.lɔ̃\
Letters5
Frequency rank#71,280
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « belon » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.belontombe 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: « Bazile » (#71,279), « bengals » (#71,282), « barbichette » (#71,277). Parmi 4,251 lemmes en « B », « belon » est au #71,280. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

belon is uncommon French at frequency #71,280 among 4,251 “B” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \bə.lɔ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

belon doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is belon, spelled B-E-L-O-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    Appellation autrefois réservée aux seules huîtres matures élevées en parcs à Riec-sur-Bélon en Bretagne.
  2. 2
    Nom vulgaire de l’huître indigène sauvage sur tout le territoire français et qui est élevée depuis l’époque des Romains (Ostrea edulis).

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Il leur [trois négociants écaillers] est reproché d’intituler belons toutes les huîtres plates sans distinction, causant ainsi un préjudice à la production des parcs de Riec-sur-Bélon (Finistère).
  2. Le terme « belon » qui, vers 1890, désignait encore des huîtres effectivement arrivées à maturité à l’embouchure de la rivière portant ce nom dans le Finistère, a fait l’objet d’un procès il y a quelques années à Paris.

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 "belon"?
"belon" is spelled B-E-L-O-N. The IPA pronunciation is \bə.lɔ̃\.
What does "belon" mean?
As a noun, "belon" means: Appellation autrefois réservée aux seules huîtres matures élevées en parcs à Riec-sur-Bélon en Bretagne.
How do you pronounce "belon"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "belon" is \bə.lɔ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "belon" come from?
"belon" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "belon", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list