calque

\kalk\

/\kalk\/ noun

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

The verdict

“calque” has 7 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #32,328. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#32,328
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords
7
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Reproduction obtenue en calquant.

Corpus desk

Index FR-calque · calque · French

calque · rank #32,328 · 7 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #32,328
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 7 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH cales

Nearest frequency peer: cales (-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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « calque »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « calque » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

calque vs coque
67% similar
calque vs chaque
67% similar
calque vs cirque
67% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for calque
PropertyValue
Headwordcalque
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\kalk\
Letters6
Frequency rank#32,328
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « calque »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).calquese place ici:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « cales » (#32,327), « cambrioler » (#32,329), « cagnes » (#32,326). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « calque » est au #32,328. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 7 spelling variants around calque (IPA \kalk\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #32,328 among 8,609 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 6 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for calque, with forms such as "aclque", "callque", and "calqeu". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "coque", "chaque", "cirque", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is calque, spelled C-A-L-Q-U-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Reproduction obtenue en calquant.
  2. 2
    Feuille de papier translucide servant à la reproduction d’un dessin par superposition.
  3. 3
    Équivalent d'une feuille de papier translucide en dessin traditionnel, permettant de réaliser un dessin numérique par superposition de plusieurs images.
  4. 4
    Toute production de l’esprit qui n’est que l’imitation servile d’une autre.
  5. 5
    Emprunt lexical dont les constituants ont été traduits littéralement, en imitant le mot d’origine sans l’emprunter tel quel.
  6. 6
    Image satellitaire destinée à être superposée à d’autres représentant la même scène à la même échelle pour obtenir une image composite appelé superposat.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Prendre un calque. Reproduire un dessin par calque.
  2. […], il faut opérer une véritable réinvention de la démocratie qui ne soit ni un calque du régime présidentiel à l’américaine ou à la française, ni une pâle copie du système électoral français ou anglais : […].

This word in other languages

tracing(English)calco(Español)Pause(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • aclque
  • callque
  • calqeu
  • calqque
  • caluqe
  • caqlue
  • ccalque

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of calque - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

aclque2callque1calqeu2calqque1caluqe2caqlue2ccalque1
Edit distance from "calque"

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 "calque"?
"calque" is spelled C-A-L-Q-U-E. The IPA pronunciation is \kalk\.
What does "calque" mean?
As a noun, "calque" means: Reproduction obtenue en calquant.
What words are commonly confused with "calque"?
"calque" is commonly confused with "coque", "chaque", "cirque". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "calque"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "calque" is \kalk\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "calque" come from?
"calque" 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 "calque", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

cagnes#32,326Caesar#32,325cadrer#32,324chacal#32,336

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).

cales7 variantsbougre7 variantsblaze7 variantsbears7 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list