corsaire
\kɔʁ.sɛʁ\
The verdict
“corsaire” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #30,543 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #30,543
- frequency rank, French
- 8
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 4
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Bâtiment qui, en temps de guerre, était armé en course par des particuliers en vertu d'une commission du gouvernement (la lettre de marque).
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | corsaire |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \kɔʁ.sɛʁ\ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #30,543 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “corsaire” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for corsaire is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \kɔʁ.sɛʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #30,543 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for corsaire, with forms such as "ccorsaire", "corasire", and "corrsaire". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "corsaires", "Césaire", "corsair", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is corsaire, spelled C-O-R-S-A-I-R-E.
Definition
- 1Bâtiment qui, en temps de guerre, était armé en course par des particuliers en vertu d'une commission du gouvernement (la lettre de marque).
- 2Le commandant d'un tel bâtiment.
- 3Pirate.
- 4Homme que son extrême cupidité rend dur, impitoyable, inique.
- 5Boule qui a fini son parcours sans avoir touché le piquet final. Elle permet au joueur de placer ses partenaires et de déplacer ses adversaires.
- 6Pantalon relativement moulant qui descend jusque mi-mollet, intermédiaire entre la culotte aristocratique du XVIIIᵉ siècle et le pantalon.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccorsaire,corasire,corrsaire,corsaier,corsairre,corsarie,corsiare,corssaire,cosraire,crosaire,ocrsaire
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of corsaire - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 "corsaire"?
What does "corsaire" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "corsaire"?
How do you pronounce "corsaire"?
What language does "corsaire" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “corsaire”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is C-O-R-S-A-I-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \kɔʁ.sɛʁ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “corsaires” - see the side-by-side comparison. corsaire vs corsaires
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.