ebony

\ˈɛb.ə.ni\

/\ˈɛb.ə.ni\/ noun

The verdict

“ebony” is uncommon French (frequency #62,236 among 3,255 “E” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#62,236
frequency rank, French
3,255
“E” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Ébène.

Corpus desk

Index FR-ebony · ebony · French

ebony · rank #62,236 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #62,236
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,255
  • PHOTO-FINISH désunion

Nearest frequency peer: désunion (-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 « ebony »

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 « ebony » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for ebony
PropertyValue
Headwordebony
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ˈɛb.ə.ni\
Letters5
Frequency rank#62,236
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « ebony » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).ebonytombe 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: « désunion » (#62,235), « ecclésiale » (#62,237), « désiste » (#62,234). Parmi 3,255 lemmes en « E », « ebony » est au #62,236. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

ebony is uncommon French at frequency #62,236 among 3,255 “E” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ˈɛb.ə.ni\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Ébène.".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for ebony, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

Our source data has no etymology on file 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 ebony, spelled E-B-O-N-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    Ébène.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. — Magic Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all? — Famed is thy beauty, Majesty. But hold, a lovely maid I see. Rags cannot hide her gentle grace. Alas, she is more fair than thee. — Alas for her! Reveal her name. — Lips red as the rose. Hair black as ebony. Skin white as snow. — Snow White!

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 "ebony"?
"ebony" is spelled E-B-O-N-Y. The IPA pronunciation is \ˈɛb.ə.ni\.
What does "ebony" mean?
As a noun, "ebony" means: Ébène.
How do you pronounce "ebony"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "ebony" is \ˈɛb.ə.ni\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "ebony" come from?
"ebony" 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 "ebony", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list