décibel
\de.si.bɛl\
The verdict
“décibel” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 7
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Unité de mesure de grandeurs logarithmiques du Système international (SI), valant 10⁻¹ bel, et dont le symbole est dB.
Corpus desk
Index FR-decibel · décibel · French
décibel · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "D" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | décibel |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \de.si.bɛl\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « décibel » en français
Rare enough to double-check
décibel is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed \de.si.bɛl\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
décibel has no tracked misspelling variants, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, 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 décibel, spelled D-É-C-I-B-E-L.
Definition
- 1Unité de mesure de grandeurs logarithmiques du Système international (SI), valant 10⁻¹ bel, et dont le symbole est dB.
- 2Unité de mesure de grandeurs logarithmiques du Système international (SI), valant 10⁻¹ bel, et dont le symbole est dB.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how décibel appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Le décibel exprime les rapports entre grandeurs de même espèce : 10 décibels signifient un rapport dont le logarithme décimal est l’unité (10¹ dB → 10:1) ; un décibel signifie un rapport dont le logarithme décimal vaut 10⁻¹ (1 dB → 10^(0,1):1 ≈ 1,259:1).
Soyez attentifs aux décibels (dB) indiqués sur votre appareil. À titre indicatif, une climatisation dite « silencieuse » affiche un volume sonore moyen entre 20 et 30 dB.
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.