contralto

\kɔ̃.tʁal.to\

/\kɔ̃.tʁal.to\/ noun

The verdict

“contralto” is uncommon French (frequency #92,583 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#92,583
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - La plus grave des voix de femme.

Corpus desk

Index FR-contralto · contralto · French

contralto · rank #92,583 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #92,583
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH contacterons

Nearest frequency peer: contacterons (-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 « contralto »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for contralto
PropertyValue
Headwordcontralto
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\kɔ̃.tʁal.to\
Letters9
Frequency rank#92,583
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « contralto » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).contraltotombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « contacterons » (#92,582), « convertissez » (#92,584), « construiront » (#92,581). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « contralto » est au #92,583. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

contralto is uncommon French at frequency #92,583 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \kɔ̃.tʁal.to\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "La plus grave des voix de femme.".

contralto has no tracked misspelling variants, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is contralto, spelled C-O-N-T-R-A-L-T-O.

Definition

  1. 1
    La plus grave des voix de femme.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Vous connaissez quelqu’une de ces voix harmonieuses et mâles qui rappellent en un registre plus grave le contralto de la femme.
  2. Il atteint des régions qu’il avait jusque-là réservées à ses grandes œuvres chorales, telles que le Requiem allemand et la Rhapsodie pour contralto, à laquelle il est impossible de ne pas associer ce diptyque.

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 "contralto"?
"contralto" is spelled C-O-N-T-R-A-L-T-O. The IPA pronunciation is \kɔ̃.tʁal.to\.
What does "contralto" mean?
As a noun, "contralto" means: La plus grave des voix de femme.
How do you pronounce "contralto"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "contralto" is \kɔ̃.tʁal.to\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "contralto" come from?
"contralto" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 "contralto", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list