carabine
\ka.ʁa.bin\
The verdict
“carabine” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #22,195 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #22,195
- frequency rank, French
- 8
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 6
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Arme à feu d’épaule, plus légère et moins puissante qu’un fusil, et généralement à canon rayé, utilisée dans la cavalerie, la gendarmerie, etc.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | carabine |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ka.ʁa.bin\ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #22,195 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 6 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “carabine” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for carabine is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ka.ʁa.bin\. Corpus data places it at rank #22,195 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for carabine, with forms such as "acrabine", "caarbine", and "carabbine". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 6 confusable-pair relationships, "Carine", "carbone", "caraïbe", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is carabine, spelled C-A-R-A-B-I-N-E.
Definition
- 1Arme à feu d’épaule, plus légère et moins puissante qu’un fusil, et généralement à canon rayé, utilisée dans la cavalerie, la gendarmerie, etc.
- 2Arme à feu d’épaule du type fusil, le plus souvent à canon lisse, tirant généralement des cartouches chargées de plombs.
- 3Jouet d’enfant imitant l’arme à feu du même nom.
- 4Étudiante en médecine.
- 5Grisette, amante, souvent pauvre, d’un étudiant en médecine (au xixᵉ siècle).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: acrabine,caarbine,carabbine,carabien,carabinne,carabnie,caraibne,carbaine,carrabine,ccarabine,craabine
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of carabine - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 "carabine"?
What does "carabine" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "carabine"?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “carabine”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is C-A-R-A-B-I-N-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ka.ʁa.bin\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Carine” - see the side-by-side comparison. carabine vs Carine
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
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.