écharde

\e.ʃaʁd\

/\e.ʃaʁd\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“écharde” is uncommon French (frequency #83,526 among 1,805 “É” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#83,526
frequency rank, French
1,805
“É” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Piquant de chardon ou petit éclat piquant de matériau rigide.

Corpus desk

Index FR-echarde · écharde · French

écharde · rank #83,526 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #83,526
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,805
  • PHOTO-FINISH Zverev

Nearest frequency peer: Zverev (-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 « écharde »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for écharde
PropertyValue
Headwordécharde
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\e.ʃaʁd\
Letters7
Frequency rank#83,526
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « écharde » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).échardetombe 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: « Zverev » (#83,525), « échelonnement » (#83,527), « zombis » (#83,523). Parmi 1,805 lemmes en « É », « écharde » est au #83,526. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

écharde is uncommon French at frequency #83,526 among 1,805 “É” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \e.ʃaʁd\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

écharde 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, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is écharde, spelled É-C-H-A-R-D-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Piquant de chardon ou petit éclat piquant de matériau rigide.
  2. 2
    Embarras, souvenir douloureux.
  3. 3
    Synonyme de épinoche à trois épines.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. On lui a tiré une écharde du pied.
  2. Il lui entra une écharde sous l’ongle.

Synonyms

esquille

This word in other languages

splinter(English)astilla(Español)Splitter(Deutsch)farpa(Português)

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 "écharde"?
"écharde" is spelled É-C-H-A-R-D-E. The IPA pronunciation is \e.ʃaʁd\.
What does "écharde" mean?
As a noun, "écharde" means: Piquant de chardon ou petit éclat piquant de matériau rigide.
How do you pronounce "écharde"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "écharde" is \e.ʃaʁd\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "écharde" come from?
"écharde" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "écharde", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

écuelle#83,530édictés#83,531épicéas#83,535abrégés#83,545

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list