djembé
\dʒɛm.be\
The verdict
“djembé” is uncommon French (frequency #73,903 among 5,307 “D” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #73,903
- frequency rank, French
- 5,307
- “D” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Instrument de musique originaire d’Afrique, composé d'une pièce de bois recouvert d’une peau tendue.
Corpus desk
Index FR-djembe · djembé · French
djembé · rank #73,903 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #73,903
- LEN-LONG 6 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,307
- PHOTO-FINISH dita
Nearest frequency peer: dita (-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 « djembé »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- discursive
discursive
26,101 corpus weight
- disloque
disloque
26,100 corpus weight
- dita
dita
26,099 corpus weight
- djembé
djembé
26,098 corpus weight
- domestiquer
domestiquer
26,097 corpus weight
- domestiqués
domestiqués
26,096 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « djembé » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | djembé |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \dʒɛm.be\ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #73,903 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « djembé » en français
Rare enough to double-check
djembé is uncommon French at frequency #73,903 among 5,307 “D” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \dʒɛm.be\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Instrument de musique originaire d’Afrique, composé d'une pièce de bois recouvert d’une peau tendue.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for djembé in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is djembé, spelled D-J-E-M-B-É.
Definition
- 1Instrument de musique originaire d’Afrique, composé d'une pièce de bois recouvert d’une peau tendue.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how djembé appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Il raconte avec forces détails les différentes remises d’espèces de chefs d’État africains, dans des contenants plus ou moins folkloriques (comme des djembés bourrés de billets «offerts» par le président burkinabé Blaise Compaoré).
— Cette formation organisée selon la demande est consacrée aux polyrythmies jouées par les tambours djembé et dundun au Mali et en Guinée et à celles de l'ensemble de tambours sabar du Sénégal.
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 "djembé", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).