distinguo
\dis.tɛ̃.ɡo\
The verdict
“distinguo” is uncommon French (frequency #76,495 among 5,307 “D” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #76,495
- frequency rank, French
- 5,307
- “D” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Action d’énoncer une distinction dans une argumentation, ou résultat de cette action.
Corpus desk
Index FR-distinguo · distinguo · French
distinguo · rank #76,495 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #76,495
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,307
- PHOTO-FINISH distillant
Nearest frequency peer: distillant (-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 « distinguo »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- dirigeront
dirigeront
23,509 corpus weight
- dish
dish
23,508 corpus weight
- distillant
distillant
23,507 corpus weight
- distinguo
distinguo
23,506 corpus weight
- diversifiant
diversifiant
23,505 corpus weight
- diététicien…
diététicienne
23,504 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « distinguo » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | distinguo |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \dis.tɛ̃.ɡo\ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #76,495 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « distinguo » en français
Rare enough to double-check
distinguo is uncommon French at frequency #76,495 among 5,307 “D” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \dis.tɛ̃.ɡo\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Action d’énoncer une distinction dans une argumentation, ou résultat de cette action.".
Zero misspellings are on record for distinguo in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is distinguo, spelled D-I-S-T-I-N-G-U-O.
Definition
- 1Action d’énoncer une distinction dans une argumentation, ou résultat de cette action.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how distinguo appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
[…] subtil distinguo dont je me fais fort de tirer illico presto maints développements divertissants et vertigineux ; mais l’heure est grave et je dois poursuivre […]
Les coqs-à-l’âne et les distinguos illustrent bien quels remaniements sémantiques s'opèrent quand le contexte remanie les classes codifiées en langue. Les distinguos opposent deux synonymes ou parasynonymes dont l'équivalence conventionnelle peut parfaitement être contredite : […].
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
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "distinguo", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).