Chennai

name

The verdict

“Chennai” is uncommon French (frequency #51,349 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a proper noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#51,349
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Capitale du Tamil Nadu, dans l’Inde du Sud.

Corpus desk

Index FR-chennai · Chennai · French

Chennai · rank #51,349 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #51,349
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH cheers

Nearest frequency peer: cheers (-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 « Chennai »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for Chennai
PropertyValue
HeadwordChennai
LanguageFrench
Part of speechProper noun
Letters7
Frequency rank#51,349
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « Chennai » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.Chennaitombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « cheers » (#51,348), « cheque » (#51,350), « cheat » (#51,347). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « Chennai » est au #51,349. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

Chennai is uncommon French at frequency #51,349 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as aproper noun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Capitale du Tamil Nadu, dans l’Inde du Sud.".

Chennai has no tracked misspelling variants, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is Chennai, spelled C-H-E-N-N-A-I.

Definition

  1. 1
    Capitale du Tamil Nadu, dans l’Inde du Sud.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Par solidarité, des centaines de personnes ont aussi fait la grève de la faim à Delhi, Calcutta, Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabab, Bangalore, dans la plus pure tradition gandhienne de non-violence, pendant qu’une vague de soutien montée de la jeunesse indienne s’organisait sur Twitter et Facebook.
  2. Son chemin l’a pourtant menée loin des sentiers battus, jusqu’à ce village du Tamil Nadu, entre Chennai et Pondichéry, dans cette cahute où elle est allongée.

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

How do you spell "Chennai"?
"Chennai" is spelled C-H-E-N-N-A-I.
What does "Chennai" mean?
As a proper noun, "Chennai" means: Capitale du Tamil Nadu, dans l’Inde du Sud.
What language does "Chennai" come from?
"Chennai" 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 "Chennai", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list