canaque
\ka.nak\
The verdict
“canaque” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 7
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Relatif aux Canaques, habitants autochtones de la Nouvelle-Calédonie.
Corpus desk
Index FR-canaque · canaque · French
canaque · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "C" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | canaque |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \ka.nak\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « canaque » en français
Rare enough to double-check
canaque is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective, transcribed \ka.nak\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
canaque doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. 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.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is canaque, spelled C-A-N-A-Q-U-E.
Definition
- 1Relatif aux Canaques, habitants autochtones de la Nouvelle-Calédonie.
- 2Sauvage, malappris
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how canaque appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Le cousin Rigouillard était parti du pays, très jeune, et il était revenu, un beau jour, avec des colis innombrables qui recelaient les objets les plus hétéroclites, autruches empaillées, pirogues canaques, porcelaines japonaises, etc.
La forme de l’esclavage était celle de l’esclavage domestique et le sort des esclaves était certainement moins dur que celui des nègres qui travaillaient dans les plantations d’Amérique ou même les coolies chinois ou canaques qui les ont remplacés.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.