drosophile

\dʁɔ.zɔ.fil\

/\dʁɔ.zɔ.fil\/ noun

The verdict

“drosophile” is uncommon French (frequency #94,714 among 5,307 “D” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#94,714
frequency rank, French
5,307
“D” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Petit insecte diptère, holométabole, dont l'espèce la plus courante est la mouche du vinaigre.

Corpus desk

Index FR-drosophile · drosophile · French

drosophile · rank #94,714 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #94,714
  • LEN-MEGA 10 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,307
  • PHOTO-FINISH draveurs

Nearest frequency peer: draveurs (-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 « drosophile »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « drosophile » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for drosophile
PropertyValue
Headworddrosophile
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\dʁɔ.zɔ.fil\
Letters10
Frequency rank#94,714
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « drosophile » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).drosophiletombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « draveurs » (#94,713), « DPP » (#94,712), « dosées » (#94,711). Parmi 5,307 lemmes en « D », « drosophile » est au #94,714. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

drosophile is uncommon French at frequency #94,714 among 5,307 “D” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \dʁɔ.zɔ.fil\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Petit insecte diptère, holométabole, dont l'espèce la plus courante est la mouche du vinaigre.".

drosophile doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is drosophile, spelled D-R-O-S-O-P-H-I-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Petit insecte diptère, holométabole, dont l'espèce la plus courante est la mouche du vinaigre.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how drosophile appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Pensif, il laissa passer presque tout l’après-midi à intégrer la nouvelle en regardant Ben qui s’escrimait à micro-injecter des œufs de drosophile.
  2. Or on a découvert depuis la fin des années quatre-vingt que des gènes de contrôle homologues de ceux de la drosophile, des homéogènes, existent aussi chez la souris.

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

How do you spell "drosophile"?
"drosophile" is spelled D-R-O-S-O-P-H-I-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is \dʁɔ.zɔ.fil\.
What does "drosophile" mean?
As a noun, "drosophile" means: Petit insecte diptère, holométabole, dont l'espèce la plus courante est la mouche du vinaigre.
How do you pronounce "drosophile"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "drosophile" is \dʁɔ.zɔ.fil\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "drosophile" come from?
"drosophile" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "drosophile", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list