dread
\dʁɛd\
The verdict
“dread” is uncommon French (frequency #73,908 among 5,307 “D” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #73,908
- frequency rank, French
- 5,307
- “D” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Mèche de cheveux emmêlées naturellement, dreadlock.
Corpus desk
Index FR-dread · dread · French
dread · rank #73,908 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #73,908
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,307
- PHOTO-FINISH douiller
Nearest frequency peer: douiller (-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 « dread »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- domestiquer
domestiquer
26,097 corpus weight
- domestiqués
domestiqués
26,096 corpus weight
- douiller
douiller
26,094 corpus weight
- dread
dread
26,093 corpus weight
- droitisation
droitisation
26,091 corpus weight
- DSC
DSC
26,090 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « dread » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | dread |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \dʁɛd\ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #73,908 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « dread » en français
Rare enough to double-check
dread is uncommon French at frequency #73,908 among 5,307 “D” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \dʁɛd\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Mèche de cheveux emmêlées naturellement, dreadlock.".
dread doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, 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 dread, spelled D-R-E-A-D.
Definition
- 1Mèche de cheveux emmêlées naturellement, dreadlock.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how dread appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Avant toute chose, le principe d'une dread synthétique, c'est de ressembler à une vraie dreadlock, mais ce n'est pas une vraie dreadlock.
A ma JAPD mon voisin avait une dread comme ça, avec le reste des cheveux courts et une clochette au bout.
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 "dread", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).