cétacé
\se.ta.se\
The verdict
“cétacé” is uncommon French (frequency #76,478 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #76,478
- frequency rank, French
- 8,609
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Qui a la forme de poissons, en parlant de grands mammifères, tels que les baleines, les dauphins, etc.
Corpus desk
Index FR-cetace · cétacé · French
cétacé · rank #76,478 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #76,478
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 8,609
- PHOTO-FINISH Cusco
Nearest frequency peer: Cusco (-2 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 « cétacé »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- cups
cups
23,527 corpus weight
- curistes
curistes
23,526 corpus weight
- Cusco
Cusco
23,525 corpus weight
- cétacé
cétacé
23,523 corpus weight
- Dalmas
Dalmas
23,521 corpus weight
- Dalo
Dalo
23,520 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « cétacé » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cétacé |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \se.ta.se\ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #76,478 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « cétacé » en français
Rare enough to double-check
cétacé is uncommon French at frequency #76,478 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \se.ta.se\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for cétacé in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is cétacé, spelled C-É-T-A-C-É.
Definition
- 1Qui a la forme de poissons, en parlant de grands mammifères, tels que les baleines, les dauphins, etc.
- 2De gros animal marin.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how cétacé appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Le cochon a cela de commun avec la baleine et les autres animaux cétacés, dont la graisse n'est qu'une espèce de lard à peu près de la même consistance, mais plus huileux que celui du cochon : ce lard, dans les animaux cétacés, forme aussi sous la peau une couche de plusieurs pouces d'épaisseur, qui enveloppe la chair.
Il était bien à l’abri dans le ventre cétacé.
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 "cétacé", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).