cant
The verdict
“cant” is uncommon French (frequency #51,335 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #51,335
- frequency rank, French
- 8,609
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Afféterie de manières et de langage ; hypocrisie à la mode.
Corpus desk
Index FR-cant · cant · French
cant · rank #51,335 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #51,335
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 8,609
- PHOTO-FINISH candidater
Nearest frequency peer: candidater (-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 « cant »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- calvinistes
calvinistes
48,670 corpus weight
- candidater
candidater
48,667 corpus weight
- cant
cant
48,666 corpus weight
- cappella
cappella
48,665 corpus weight
- caravelle
caravelle
48,663 corpus weight
- castré
castré
48,662 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « cant » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cant |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #51,335 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « cant » en français
Rare enough to double-check
cant is uncommon French at frequency #51,335 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Afféterie de manières et de langage ; hypocrisie à la mode.".
No misspelling variants are generated for cant in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
No documented word history exists for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is cant, spelled C-A-N-T.
Definition
- 1Afféterie de manières et de langage ; hypocrisie à la mode.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how cant appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Rien n'éloigne davantage des deux grands vices anglais, le cant et le bashfulness (hypocrisie de moralité et timidité orgueilleuse et souffrante).
À tort ou à raison, les Tourangeaux aiment beaucoup à hériter de leurs parents. Or, la doctrine de Saint-Simon y était alors particulièrement prise en haine et vilipendée ; mais comme on prend en haine, comme on vilipende en Touraine, avec un dédain et une supériorité de plaisanterie digne du pays des bons contes et des tours joués aux voisins, esprit qui…
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 "cant", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).