contrescarpe

\kɔ̃.tʁɛs.kaʁp\

/\kɔ̃.tʁɛs.kaʁp\/ noun

The verdict

“contrescarpe” is uncommon French (frequency #51,975 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#51,975
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Partie de l'enceinte comprenant le mur extérieur du fossé et le glacis qui le prolonge.

Corpus desk

Index FR-contrescarpe · contrescarpe · French

contrescarpe · rank #51,975 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #51,975
  • LEN-MEGA 12 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH conférencière

Nearest frequency peer: conférencière (-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 « contrescarpe »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for contrescarpe
PropertyValue
Headwordcontrescarpe
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\kɔ̃.tʁɛs.kaʁp\
Letters12
Frequency rank#51,975
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « contrescarpe » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).contrescarpetombe 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: « conférencière » (#51,974), « contrôlable » (#51,976), « confortent » (#51,973). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « contrescarpe » est au #51,975. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

contrescarpe is uncommon French at frequency #51,975 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \kɔ̃.tʁɛs.kaʁp\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Partie de l'enceinte comprenant le mur extérieur du fossé et le glacis qui le prolonge.".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for contrescarpe, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is contrescarpe, spelled C-O-N-T-R-E-S-C-A-R-P-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Partie de l'enceinte comprenant le mur extérieur du fossé et le glacis qui le prolonge.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Tout au plus essaierait-on de dégager la partie antérieure de l'enceinte, de manière à former un fossé dont la contrescarpe protégerait encore la palissade.
  2. Le mur de contrescarpe était haut et paraissait difficile à escalader.

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 "contrescarpe"?
"contrescarpe" is spelled C-O-N-T-R-E-S-C-A-R-P-E. The IPA pronunciation is \kɔ̃.tʁɛs.kaʁp\.
What does "contrescarpe" mean?
As a noun, "contrescarpe" means: Partie de l'enceinte comprenant le mur extérieur du fossé et le glacis qui le prolonge.
How do you pronounce "contrescarpe"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "contrescarpe" is \kɔ̃.tʁɛs.kaʁp\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "contrescarpe" come from?
"contrescarpe" 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 "contrescarpe", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 12 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list