cancre
\kɑ̃kʁ\
The verdict
“cancre” is uncommon French (frequency #52,548 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #52,548
- frequency rank, French
- 8,609
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Écrevisse, crabe.
Corpus desk
Index FR-cancre · cancre · French
cancre · rank #52,548 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #52,548
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 8,609
- PHOTO-FINISH campagnards
Nearest frequency peer: campagnards (-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 « cancre »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- Camaret
Camaret
47,456 corpus weight
- cambodgienne
cambodgienne
47,455 corpus weight
- campagnards
campagnards
47,454 corpus weight
- cancre
cancre
47,453 corpus weight
- carbo
carbo
47,451 corpus weight
- carbonifère
carbonifère
47,450 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « cancre » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cancre |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \kɑ̃kʁ\ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #52,548 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « cancre » en français
Rare enough to double-check
cancre is uncommon French at frequency #52,548 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \kɑ̃kʁ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 5 senses are on record.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for cancre, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, 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 best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is cancre, spelled C-A-N-C-R-E.
Definition
- 1Écrevisse, crabe.
- 2Écolier avec qui les enseignants n’arrivent à rien.
- 3Personne (morale ou physique) qui, dans un groupe, réussit le moins bien (ou échoue).
- 4Homme avare, rapace et haïssable.
- 5Homme sans moyens, sans fortune.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how cancre appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Des mousses arrivent, en courant, les jambes nues, barbotent dans les flaques, soulèvent les pierres tapissées de goémon, à la recherche des loches et des cancres.
Les cancres furent coiffés de bonnets d’âne, et envoyés au coin.
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); 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
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "cancre", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).