calebasse

\kal.bas\

/\kal.bas\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“calebasse” is uncommon French (frequency #70,452 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#70,452
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Fruit du calebassier.

Corpus desk

Index FR-calebasse · calebasse · French

calebasse · rank #70,452 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #70,452
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH caillasse

Nearest frequency peer: caillasse (-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 « calebasse »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for calebasse
PropertyValue
Headwordcalebasse
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\kal.bas\
Letters9
Frequency rank#70,452
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « calebasse » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).calebassetombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « caillasse » (#70,451), « calibrés » (#70,453), « cagnottes » (#70,450). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « calebasse » est au #70,452. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

calebasse is uncommon French at frequency #70,452 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \kal.bas\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 5 senses are on record.

No generated misspelling entries exist for calebasse in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is calebasse, spelled C-A-L-E-B-A-S-S-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Fruit du calebassier.
  2. 2
    Un de ces fruits, vidé et séché, et qui sert à contenir des boissons et à divers autres emplois.
  3. 3
    Nom usuel en Afrique francophone de la plante et de son fruit, de la famille des Cucurbitaceae (Cucurbitacées), nommés Lagenaria siceraria, dont les fruits jeunes sont mangés cuits. Le fruit sec, mature et évidé est utilisé comme contenant.
  4. 4
    Tête.
  5. 5
    Petit appareil, proche du cubilot, utilisé pour fondre des métaux en petite quantité.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Il n’y avait dans ce lieu qu’une natte de feuilles de papaya, une calebasse pour puiser de l’eau, quelques vases de bois, une bêche, un serpent familier.
  2. Nous retournâmes à la hutte qui nous avait été assignée, où bientôt après le prince nous envoya une calebasse de lait et de déguet qu’il me priait d’accepter.

Synonyms

courge bouteille

This word in other languages

calabash(English)

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 "calebasse"?
"calebasse" is spelled C-A-L-E-B-A-S-S-E. The IPA pronunciation is \kal.bas\.
What does "calebasse" mean?
As a noun, "calebasse" means: Fruit du calebassier.
How do you pronounce "calebasse"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "calebasse" is \kal.bas\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "calebasse" come from?
"calebasse" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "calebasse", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

caillasse#70,451cagnottes#70,450canalisée#70,455capitules#70,458

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list