cellophane
\se.lɔ.fan\
The verdict
“cellophane” is uncommon French (frequency #63,607 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #63,607
- frequency rank, French
- 8,609
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Pellicule fine et transparente constituée d’hydrate de cellulose, utilisée pour certains emballages.
Corpus desk
Index FR-cellophane · cellophane · French
cellophane · rank #63,607 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #63,607
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 8,609
- PHOTO-FINISH Ceccaldi
Nearest frequency peer: Ceccaldi (-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 « cellophane »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- Cassou
Cassou
36,397 corpus weight
- Cavanna
Cavanna
36,396 corpus weight
- Ceccaldi
Ceccaldi
36,395 corpus weight
- cellophane
cellophane
36,394 corpus weight
- centrafrica…
centrafricains
36,393 corpus weight
- chalcédoine
chalcédoine
36,391 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « cellophane » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cellophane |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \se.lɔ.fan\ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #63,607 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « cellophane » en français
Rare enough to double-check
cellophane is uncommon French at frequency #63,607 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \se.lɔ.fan\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for cellophane in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, 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 easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is cellophane, spelled C-E-L-L-O-P-H-A-N-E.
Definition
- 1Pellicule fine et transparente constituée d’hydrate de cellulose, utilisée pour certains emballages.
- 2Tout film plastique transparent qui sert à l’emballage, même si ce n’est pas à proprement parler de la cellophane, mais plus souvent du polyéthylène ou du PVC.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how cellophane appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Au milieu des livres, j’ai découvert ce livre d’images. Il était enveloppé de cellophane et entouré d’une ficelle dorée.
Le présent et le passé se confondent, et cela semble naturel puisqu’ils n'étaient séparés que par une paroi de cellophane. Il suffisait d’une piqûre d’insecte pour crever la cellophane.
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 "cellophane", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).