caïman
\ka.i.mɑ̃\
The verdict
“caïman” is uncommon French (frequency #50,708 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #50,708
- frequency rank, French
- 8,609
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Reptile de la sous-famille Caimaninae originaire d’Amérique centrale ou d’Amérique du Sud, proche de l’alligator.
Corpus desk
Index FR-caiman · caïman · French
caïman · rank #50,708 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #50,708
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 8,609
- PHOTO-FINISH Castex
Nearest frequency peer: Castex (-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 « caïman »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- cardan
cardan
49,296 corpus weight
- caribous
caribous
49,295 corpus weight
- Castex
Castex
49,294 corpus weight
- caïman
caïman
49,293 corpus weight
- cella
cella
49,292 corpus weight
- chacals
chacals
49,291 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « caïman » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | caïman |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ka.i.mɑ̃\ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #50,708 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « caïman » en français
Rare enough to double-check
caïman is uncommon French at frequency #50,708 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ka.i.mɑ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for caïman in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, 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 caïman, spelled C-A-Ï-M-A-N.
Definition
- 1Reptile de la sous-famille Caimaninae originaire d’Amérique centrale ou d’Amérique du Sud, proche de l’alligator.
- 2Agrégé répétiteur à l’École normale supérieure.
- 3Élève très travailleur. → voir caïmanter
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how caïman appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Il reconnut ces féroces alligators particuliers à l’Amérique, et nommés caïmans dans les pays espagnols.
Sur les bords battus par le flot rougeâtre, leur répugnante gueule jaune grande ouverte, des caïmans dormaient.
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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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "caïman", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).