colombe
\kɔ.lɔ̃b\
The verdict
“colombe” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #16,575 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #16,575
- frequency rank, French
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 15
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Pigeon (en général de couleur blanche).
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | colombe |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \kɔ.lɔ̃b\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #16,575 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 15 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “colombe” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for colombe is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \kɔ.lɔ̃b\. Corpus data places it at rank #16,575 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for colombe, with forms such as "ccolombe", "cloombe", and "collombe". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 15 confusable-pair relationships, "combe", "coloré", "colonne", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
No borrowing history is documented 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 colombe, spelled C-O-L-O-M-B-E.
Definition
- 1Pigeon (en général de couleur blanche).
- 2Tourterelle domestique.
- 3Nom vernaculaire normalisé de 7 genres de columbidés réunissant 47 espèces spécifiques aux basses latitudes de l’écozone néotropicale, tels qu’homologués par un comité international, incluant les genres Columbina, Leptotila, Geotrygon, etc. (voir la liste sous hyponymes), et ne possédant que peu de caractéristiques communes sauf la taille généralement petite et les mœurs plus terrestres qu’arboricoles.
- 4Emblème religieux représentant le Saint-Esprit.
- 5Viennoiserie qui adopte cette forme.
- 6Meuble représentant l’animal du même nom dans les armoiries. Elle se blasonne comme le pigeon dont elle ne diffère pas vraiment (il y a donc risque de confusion) si ce n’est par le fait qu’elle est généralement représentée d’argent (même si d’autres couleurs sont possibles). Quand elle est utilisée pour symboliser la paix, elle est représentée tenant un rameau d’olivier dans le bec. À rapprocher de pigeon et tourterelle.
- 7Partisan de la paix.
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccolombe,cloombe,collombe,colmobe,colobme,colombbe,colomeb,colommbe,coolmbe,oclombe
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of colombe - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "colombe"?
What does "colombe" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "colombe"?
How do you pronounce "colombe"?
What language does "colombe" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “colombe”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is C-O-L-O-M-B-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \kɔ.lɔ̃b\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “combe” - see the side-by-side comparison. colombe vs combe
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.