bretzel
\bʁɛt.sɛl\
The verdict
“bretzel” is an uncommon French word, ranked #57,126 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #57,126
- frequency rank, French
- 7
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Biscuit salé à base de pâte de brioche, spécialité d’Alsace et d’Allemagne en forme de gros nœud.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bretzel |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \bʁɛt.sɛl\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #57,126 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “bretzel” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for bretzel is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \bʁɛt.sɛl\. Corpus data places it at rank #57,126 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Zero misspellings are on record for bretzel in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is bretzel, spelled B-R-E-T-Z-E-L.
Definition
- 1Biscuit salé à base de pâte de brioche, spécialité d’Alsace et d’Allemagne en forme de gros nœud.
- 2Petit biscuit sec apéritif fabriqué industriellement.
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 “bretzel”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is B-R-E-T-Z-E-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \bʁɛt.sɛl\ (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.