cinabre

\si.nabʁ\

/\si.nabʁ\/ noun

The verdict

“cinabre” is uncommon French (frequency #82,789 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#82,789
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Combinaison naturelle ou artificielle de mercure et de soufre, de formule HgS, dont on fait le vermillon.

Corpus desk

Index FR-cinabre · cinabre · French

cinabre · rank #82,789 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #82,789
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH ciboulot

Nearest frequency peer: ciboulot (-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 « cinabre »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for cinabre
PropertyValue
Headwordcinabre
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\si.nabʁ\
Letters7
Frequency rank#82,789
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « cinabre » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).cinabretombe 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: « ciboulot » (#82,788), « circuleront » (#82,790), « choron » (#82,787). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « cinabre » est au #82,789. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

cinabre is uncommon French at frequency #82,789 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \si.nabʁ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

cinabre doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is cinabre, spelled C-I-N-A-B-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Combinaison naturelle ou artificielle de mercure et de soufre, de formule HgS, dont on fait le vermillon.
  2. 2
    Encre pourpre fabriquée à partir du cinabre. Cette encre était utilisée par les Byzantins pour authentifier les actes impériaux issus de la chancellerie.
  3. 3
    Couleur rouge teinté d’orange.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Mais l’étranger lui écrivit en réponse, sur un parchemin […] et avec des caractères rouges comme le cinabre.
  2. Un éventail rouge tremblait comme un papillon de cinabre dans ses doigts chargés de bagues d’argent.

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 "cinabre"?
"cinabre" is spelled C-I-N-A-B-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \si.nabʁ\.
What does "cinabre" mean?
As a noun, "cinabre" means: Combinaison naturelle ou artificielle de mercure et de soufre, de formule HgS, dont on fait le vermillon.
How do you pronounce "cinabre"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "cinabre" is \si.nabʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "cinabre" come from?
"cinabre" 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 "cinabre", 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