comparse

\kɔ̃.paʁs\

/\kɔ̃.paʁs\/ noun

The verdict

“comparse” is uncommon French (frequency #55,160 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#55,160
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords

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

Corpus desk

Index FR-comparse · comparse · French

comparse · rank #55,160 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #55,160
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH combative

Nearest frequency peer: combative (-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 « comparse »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for comparse
PropertyValue
Headwordcomparse
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\kɔ̃.paʁs\
Letters8
Frequency rank#55,160
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « comparse » en français

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

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « combative » (#55,159), « compilées » (#55,161), « collocation » (#55,158). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « comparse » est au #55,160. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

comparse is uncommon French at frequency #55,160 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \kɔ̃.paʁs\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

No generated misspelling entries exist for comparse in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is comparse, spelled C-O-M-P-A-R-S-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Figurant.
  2. 2
    Personne qui prend part dans une affaire (souvent illicite, mais pas forcément), dans une société…

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. « Et surtout, on a compris le plaisir coupable que donne la transe, pour certaines musiques connotées ultrakitsch, que tout le monde adore », ajoute son comparse.
  2. Il n'était qu'un comparse à appointements fixes.

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

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list