cumbia

\kum.bja\

/\kum.bja\/ noun

The verdict

“cumbia” is uncommon French (frequency #92,600 among 8,609 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#92,600
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Genre musical et danse de Colombie, nés au XVIIᵉ siècle.

Corpus desk

Index FR-cumbia · cumbia · French

cumbia · rank #92,600 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #92,600
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH culminants

Nearest frequency peer: culminants (-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 « cumbia »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for cumbia
PropertyValue
Headwordcumbia
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\kum.bja\
Letters6
Frequency rank#92,600
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « cumbia » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).cumbiatombe 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: « culminants » (#92,599), « cumulable » (#92,601), « croiserez » (#92,598). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « cumbia » est au #92,600. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

cumbia is uncommon French at frequency #92,600 among 8,609 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \kum.bja\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

cumbia has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is cumbia, spelled C-U-M-B-I-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    Genre musical et danse de Colombie, nés au XVIIᵉ siècle.
  2. 2
    Morceau dans ce genre musical.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Leur succès fut instantané et des groupes ont mélangé ces musiques à la cumbia, au vallenato et à d'autres rythmes locaux», relate Roberto.
  2. Chaque mardi à 21h30, un concert sera proposé dans des styles variés : blues, chanson, twist, pop rock, cumbia…

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 "cumbia"?
"cumbia" is spelled C-U-M-B-I-A. The IPA pronunciation is \kum.bja\.
What does "cumbia" mean?
As a noun, "cumbia" means: Genre musical et danse de Colombie, nés au XVIIᵉ siècle.
How do you pronounce "cumbia"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "cumbia" is \kum.bja\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "cumbia" come from?
"cumbia" 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 "cumbia", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list