elegant

\eleˈɡant\

/\eleˈɡant\/ adj

The verdict

“elegant” is uncommon French (frequency #69,043 among 3,255 “E” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#69,043
frequency rank, French
3,255
“E” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Élégant, qui a de l’élégance, du chic, du style, qualifie une personne, un vêtement, un comportement.

Corpus desk

Index FR-elegant · elegant · French

elegant · rank #69,043 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #69,043
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,255
  • PHOTO-FINISH enfonça

Nearest frequency peer: enfonça (+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 « elegant »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for elegant
PropertyValue
Headwordelegant
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\eleˈɡant\
Letters7
Frequency rank#69,043
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « elegant » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.eleganttombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « enfonça » (#69,044), « enfumé » (#69,045), « effriter » (#69,040). Parmi 3,255 lemmes en « E », « elegant » est au #69,043. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

elegant is uncommon French at frequency #69,043 among 3,255 “E” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \eleˈɡant\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for elegant, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is elegant, spelled E-L-E-G-A-N-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Élégant, qui a de l’élégance, du chic, du style, qualifie une personne, un vêtement, un comportement.
  2. 2
    Élégant, qualifie une solution simple et satisfaisante.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Sie trägt einen eleganten Mantel.
  2. Über die brasilianische Nationalauswahl bräuchte man eigentlich nicht viele Worte verlieren. Die Seleção ist die beste, berühmteste, bezauberndste, erfolgreichste, ästhetischste, grandioseste, eleganteste, wunderbarste Fußballmannschaft der Welt.

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 "elegant"?
"elegant" is spelled E-L-E-G-A-N-T. The IPA pronunciation is \eleˈɡant\.
What does "elegant" mean?
As an adjective, "elegant" means: Élégant, qui a de l’élégance, du chic, du style, qualifie une personne, un vêtement, un comportement.
How do you pronounce "elegant"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "elegant" is \eleˈɡant\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "elegant" come from?
"elegant" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 "elegant", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list