cancan

\kɑ̃.kɑ̃\

/\kɑ̃.kɑ̃\/ noun

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

The verdict

“cancan” is uncommon French (frequency #57,144 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#57,144
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Grand bruit fait autour d'une chose qui n'en vaut pas la peine.

Corpus desk

Index FR-cancan · cancan · French

cancan · rank #57,144 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #57,144
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH calottes

Nearest frequency peer: calottes (-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 « cancan »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for cancan
PropertyValue
Headwordcancan
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\kɑ̃.kɑ̃\
Letters6
Frequency rank#57,144
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « cancan » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.cancantombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « calottes » (#57,143), « candi » (#57,145), « cachalot » (#57,142). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « cancan » est au #57,144. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

cancan is uncommon French at frequency #57,144 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \kɑ̃.kɑ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for cancan, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is cancan, spelled C-A-N-C-A-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    Grand bruit fait autour d'une chose qui n'en vaut pas la peine.
  2. 2
    Bavardage souvent médisant ou péjoratif.
  3. 3
    Journal.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Faire un grand cancan de pas grand chose.
  2. Cette nouvelle n'est pas sûre, c'est un simple cancan.

Synonyms

comméragemédisancepotinracontarragotrumeur

This word in other languages

gossip(English)chisme(Español)Klatsch(Deutsch)bisbilhotice(Português)

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 "cancan"?
"cancan" is spelled C-A-N-C-A-N. The IPA pronunciation is \kɑ̃.kɑ̃\.
What does "cancan" mean?
As a noun, "cancan" means: Grand bruit fait autour d'une chose qui n'en vaut pas la peine.
How do you pronounce "cancan"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "cancan" is \kɑ̃.kɑ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "cancan" come from?
"cancan" 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 "cancan", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

candie#57,146Bukavu#57,132bucher#57,130cloner#57,165

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list