comb

\kəʊm\

/\kəʊm\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“comb” is uncommon French (frequency #81,012 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#81,012
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Peigne.

Corpus desk

Index FR-comb · comb · French

comb · rank #81,012 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #81,012
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH colorimétrie

Nearest frequency peer: colorimétrie (-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 « comb »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for comb
PropertyValue
Headwordcomb
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\kəʊm\
Letters4
Frequency rank#81,012
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « comb » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).combtombe 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: « colorimétrie » (#81,011), « comprimée » (#81,013), « Collonges » (#81,010). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « comb » est au #81,012. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

comb is uncommon French at frequency #81,012 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \kəʊm\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for comb, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is comb, spelled C-O-M-B.

Definition

  1. 1
    Peigne.
  2. 2
    Crête.
  3. 3
    Busc, partie de la crosse d’un fusil.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. “You might say that, my man.” Lamarck took out a black plastic comb to readjust his coiffeur. “Why do you ask?”
  2. rooster’s comb

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 "comb"?
"comb" is spelled C-O-M-B. The IPA pronunciation is \kəʊm\.
What does "comb" mean?
As a noun, "comb" means: Peigne.
How do you pronounce "comb"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "comb" is \kəʊm\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "comb" come from?
"comb" 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 "comb", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

clue#81,004daru#81,039dian#81,056died#81,057

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list