carnation

\kaʁ.na.sjɔ̃\

/\kaʁ.na.sjɔ̃\/ noun

The verdict

“carnation” is uncommon French (frequency #65,772 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#65,772
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Teint d’une personne.

Corpus desk

Index FR-carnation · carnation · French

carnation · rank #65,772 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #65,772
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH carlingue

Nearest frequency peer: carlingue (-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 « carnation »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for carnation
PropertyValue
Headwordcarnation
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\kaʁ.na.sjɔ̃\
Letters9
Frequency rank#65,772
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « carnation » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).carnationtombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « carlingue » (#65,771), « carolingien » (#65,773), « Carinthie » (#65,770). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « carnation » est au #65,772. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

carnation is uncommon French at frequency #65,772 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \kaʁ.na.sjɔ̃\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

Zero misspellings are on record for carnation in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is carnation, spelled C-A-R-N-A-T-I-O-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    Teint d’une personne.
  2. 2
    Représentation, rendu du coloris de la chair.
  3. 3
    Voir de carnation.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Mais la captivante rondeur des formes, […], la transparence d’une carnation délicate, […], imprimaient à cette beauté vigoureuse la suavité féminine, la modestie enchanteresse que nous demandons à ces anges de paix et d’amour.
  2. — La jeune fille est charmante avec ses cheveux noirs, ses yeux profonds et sa carnation éblouissante de fraîcheur.

Synonyms

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 "carnation"?
"carnation" is spelled C-A-R-N-A-T-I-O-N. The IPA pronunciation is \kaʁ.na.sjɔ̃\.
What does "carnation" mean?
As a noun, "carnation" means: Teint d’une personne.
How do you pronounce "carnation"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "carnation" is \kaʁ.na.sjɔ̃\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "carnation" come from?
"carnation" 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 "carnation", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list