donzelle
\dɔ̃.zɛl\
The verdict
“donzelle” is uncommon French (frequency #77,429 among 5,307 “D” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #77,429
- frequency rank, French
- 5,307
- “D” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Femme ou jeune fille.
Corpus desk
Index FR-donzelle · donzelle · French
donzelle · rank #77,429 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #77,429
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,307
- PHOTO-FINISH Domenach
Nearest frequency peer: Domenach (-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 « donzelle »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- distraiteme…
distraitement
22,576 corpus weight
- documentati…
documentations
22,574 corpus weight
- Domenach
Domenach
22,573 corpus weight
- donzelle
donzelle
22,572 corpus weight
- doss
doss
22,571 corpus weight
- Doullens
Doullens
22,569 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « donzelle » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | donzelle |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \dɔ̃.zɛl\ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #77,429 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « donzelle » en français
Rare enough to double-check
donzelle is uncommon French at frequency #77,429 among 5,307 “D” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \dɔ̃.zɛl\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for donzelle, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is donzelle, spelled D-O-N-Z-E-L-L-E.
Definition
- 1Femme ou jeune fille.
- 2Femme ou fille peu estimable.
- 3Membre de la famille des ophidiidés (qui regroupe des espèces de poissons de mer abyssaux).
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how donzelle appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
— « Qui est-ce donc ce petit-là, qui en tient si fort pour sa donzelle ? »
Il ne pouvait complètement se fier à sa fille aînée, Alexandra Stépanovna, à juste titre d’ailleurs, car la donzelle prit bientôt la fuite avec un capitaine de cavalerie — […].
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 "donzelle", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).