contrefiche

\kɔ̃.tʁə.fiʃ\

/\kɔ̃.tʁə.fiʃ\/ noun

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

The verdict

“contrefiche” is uncommon French (frequency #78,296 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#78,296
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Pièce de bois mise obliquement contre une autre, un pan, un mur, etc., pour le soutenir.

Corpus desk

Index FR-contrefiche · contrefiche · French

contrefiche · rank #78,296 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #78,296
  • LEN-MEGA 11 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH contractures

Nearest frequency peer: contractures (-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 « contrefiche »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for contrefiche
PropertyValue
Headwordcontrefiche
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\kɔ̃.tʁə.fiʃ\
Letters11
Frequency rank#78,296
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « contrefiche » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.contrefichetombe 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: « contractures » (#78,295), « contreviennent » (#78,297), « continuels » (#78,294). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « contrefiche » est au #78,296. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

contrefiche is uncommon French at frequency #78,296 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \kɔ̃.tʁə.fiʃ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for contrefiche, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, 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 its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is contrefiche, spelled C-O-N-T-R-E-F-I-C-H-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Pièce de bois mise obliquement contre une autre, un pan, un mur, etc., pour le soutenir.
  2. 2
    Contremaître, petit chef.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Si l'on énumère les parties principales d'une de ces fermes, on trouve quatre grands arbalétriers, chacun d'environ 10 mètres en longueur, deux cours de doubles moises de 14 mètres et de 18 mètres, un poinçon et deux contrefiches, sans mentionner les petits arbalétriers qui forment le contour polygonal auquel sont cloués les vaux taillés en courbe.
  2. Vingt mètres plus loin, sous une poussée de vieux rouvre, le toit fit un nouveau bond, laissant le champ libre à des pyramides de potelets ou de croisillons, à de noueuses files de grosses planches, pour s’en aller, de travée en travée, participer en force à cette puissante étoile de poutres raccordées par un octogone de contrefiches, chef d’œuvre d’un ma…

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 "contrefiche"?
"contrefiche" is spelled C-O-N-T-R-E-F-I-C-H-E. The IPA pronunciation is \kɔ̃.tʁə.fiʃ\.
What does "contrefiche" mean?
As a noun, "contrefiche" means: Pièce de bois mise obliquement contre une autre, un pan, un mur, etc., pour le soutenir.
How do you pronounce "contrefiche"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "contrefiche" is \kɔ̃.tʁə.fiʃ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "contrefiche" come from?
"contrefiche" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "contrefiche", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 11 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

contextuels#78,293consortiums#78,290cranberries#78,305cyclomoteur#78,315

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list