camelote

\kam.lɔt\

/\kam.lɔt\/ noun

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

The verdict

“camelote” is uncommon French (frequency #73,799 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#73,799
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Ouvrage mal fait ; marchandise de mauvaise qualité, bas de gamme.

Corpus desk

Index FR-camelote · camelote · French

camelote · rank #73,799 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #73,799
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH camionnage

Nearest frequency peer: camionnage (+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.

Frequency neighbourhood for “camelote”

Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “camelote” sits against the nearest ranked French headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for camelote
PropertyValue
Headwordcamelote
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\kam.lɔt\
Letters8
Frequency rank#73,799
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Où “camelote” se place dans la fréquence du français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).camelotese place ici:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « camionnage » (#73,800), « cadena » (#73,797), « bévues » (#73,796). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

camelote is uncommon French at frequency #73,799 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \kam.lɔt\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for camelote, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is camelote, spelled C-A-M-E-L-O-T-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Ouvrage mal fait ; marchandise de mauvaise qualité, bas de gamme.
  2. 2
    Produit quelconque ; chose de faible valeur.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Si l’Allemagne n’a point conquis encore la place qui devrait lui revenir dans le monde économique […], cela tient à ce que, pendant longtemps, ses fabricants crurent qu’il était habile d’inonder le marché avec de la camelote ; bien que la production allemande se soit fort améliorée depuis quelques années, elle ne jouit point encore d’une très haute consid…
  2. Ah ! mais, je commence à en avoir assez, de vous autres et de vos simagrées. Je sais ce que vous valez, à présent, vous tous, et votre guerre, et votre Empire, et votre trompe-l’œil… De la camelote, tout ça, du chiqué !

Synonyms

toc

This word in other languages

Schund(Deutsch)

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 "camelote"?
"camelote" is spelled C-A-M-E-L-O-T-E. The IPA pronunciation is \kam.lɔt\.
What does "camelote" mean?
As a noun, "camelote" means: Ouvrage mal fait ; marchandise de mauvaise qualité, bas de gamme.
How do you pronounce "camelote"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "camelote" is \kam.lɔt\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "camelote" come from?
"camelote" 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 "camelote", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Castanet#73,807centuple#73,813Cerberus#73,814borderie#73,777

What to do next

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PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list