cardan
\kaʁ.dɑ̃\
The verdict
“cardan” is uncommon French (frequency #50,705 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #50,705
- frequency rank, French
- 8,609
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Système mécanique permettant, entre autres, de maintenir l'axe vertical d'un objet malgré les oscillations de son support.
Corpus desk
Index FR-cardan · cardan · French
cardan · rank #50,705 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #50,705
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 8,609
- PHOTO-FINISH captiver
Nearest frequency peer: captiver (-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 « cardan »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- cancérogène
cancérogène
49,299 corpus weight
- Cappadoce
Cappadoce
49,298 corpus weight
- captiver
captiver
49,297 corpus weight
- cardan
cardan
49,296 corpus weight
- caribous
caribous
49,295 corpus weight
- Castex
Castex
49,294 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « cardan » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cardan |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \kaʁ.dɑ̃\ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #50,705 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « cardan » en français
Rare enough to double-check
cardan is uncommon French at frequency #50,705 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \kaʁ.dɑ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
cardan doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is cardan, spelled C-A-R-D-A-N.
Definition
- 1Système mécanique permettant, entre autres, de maintenir l'axe vertical d'un objet malgré les oscillations de son support.
- 2Système mécanique permettant la transmission d’un mouvement de rotation entre deux axes non parallèles entre eux.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how cardan appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Un anneau de suspension articulé à cardan assure une horizontalité parfaite de l'appareil, contrôlée par un niveau à bulles. Il faut signaler cependant la fragilité de cet appareil.
Le compas entier pèse environ 12 kilogs et est monté dans un cardan porté par un cercle lui-même supporté par un système antichoc.
Synonyms
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 "cardan", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).