cordeau

\kɔʁ.do\

/\kɔʁ.do\/ noun

The verdict

“cordeau” is uncommon French (frequency #53,231 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#53,231
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Petite corde tendue par ses extrémités afin de matérialiser une ligne droite.

Corpus desk

Index FR-cordeau · cordeau · French

cordeau · rank #53,231 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #53,231
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH Copacabana

Nearest frequency peer: Copacabana (-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 « cordeau »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for cordeau
PropertyValue
Headwordcordeau
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\kɔʁ.do\
Letters7
Frequency rank#53,231
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « cordeau » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.cordeautombe 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: « Copacabana » (#53,230), « corre » (#53,232), « contribuèrent » (#53,229). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « cordeau » est au #53,231. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

cordeau is uncommon French at frequency #53,231 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \kɔʁ.do\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 6 senses are on record.

cordeau doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, 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 cordeau, spelled C-O-R-D-E-A-U.

Definition

  1. 1
    Petite corde tendue par ses extrémités afin de matérialiser une ligne droite.
  2. 2
    Petite corde dont se servent les maçons, les jardiniers, les charpentiers pour tracer des lignes droites, pour aligner.
  3. 3
    , expression désignant une chose impeccable.
  4. 4
    Ligne de fond pour la pêche fluviale, par exemple pour la pêche aux anguilles.
  5. 5
    Mèche utilisée avec des explosifs ou comme explosif.
  6. 6
    Rêne pour diriger un cheval.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Cordeau dont le jardinier se sert pour semer et planter dans le même alignement.
  2. Rendez-moi donc mon piquet et mon cordeau à repiquages ! J’en ai besoin pour aligner les laitues.

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 "cordeau"?
"cordeau" is spelled C-O-R-D-E-A-U. The IPA pronunciation is \kɔʁ.do\.
What does "cordeau" mean?
As a noun, "cordeau" means: Petite corde tendue par ses extrémités afin de matérialiser une ligne droite.
How do you pronounce "cordeau"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "cordeau" is \kɔʁ.do\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "cordeau" come from?
"cordeau" 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 "cordeau", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list