décalque

\de.kalk\

/\de.kalk\/ noun

The verdict

“décalque” is uncommon French (frequency #96,839 among 5,307 “D” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#96,839
frequency rank, French
5,307
“D” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Action de décalquer.

Corpus desk

Index FR-decalque · décalque · French

décalque · rank #96,839 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #96,839
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,307
  • PHOTO-FINISH décernera

Nearest frequency peer: décernera (+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 « décalque »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for décalque
PropertyValue
Headworddécalque
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\de.kalk\
Letters8
Frequency rank#96,839
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « décalque » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).décalquetombe 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: « décernera » (#96,840), « débaptiser » (#96,837), « déchetteries » (#96,841). Parmi 5,307 lemmes en « D », « décalque » est au #96,839. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

décalque is uncommon French at frequency #96,839 among 5,307 “D” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \de.kalk\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

décalque has no tracked misspelling variants, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is décalque, spelled D-É-C-A-L-Q-U-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Action de décalquer.
  2. 2
    Résultat de cette action.
  3. 3
    Synonyme de décalcomanie.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Hubert, qui achevait de piquer le décalque d’un dessin de chape, alla chercher au fond du bahut un écheveau.
  2. Dans un ouvrage […] le Dr Cohn fait ressortir que l’article 16 du Pacte de la S.d.N. est le décalque (Miniaturbild) de l’article 231 du Traité de Versailles.

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 "décalque"?
"décalque" is spelled D-É-C-A-L-Q-U-E. The IPA pronunciation is \de.kalk\.
What does "décalque" mean?
As a noun, "décalque" means: Action de décalquer.
How do you pronounce "décalque"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "décalque" is \de.kalk\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "décalque" come from?
"décalque" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "décalque", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list