élégie

\e.le.ʒi\

/\e.le.ʒi\/ noun

The verdict

“élégie” is uncommon French (frequency #57,708 among 1,805 “É” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#57,708
frequency rank, French
1,805
“É” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Genre de poésie dont le sujet est triste ou tendre.

Corpus desk

Index FR-elegie · élégie · French

élégie · rank #57,708 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #57,708
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,805
  • PHOTO-FINISH éloignera

Nearest frequency peer: éloignera (-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 « élégie »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for élégie
PropertyValue
Headwordélégie
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\e.le.ʒi\
Letters6
Frequency rank#57,708
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « élégie » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).élégietombe 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: « éloignera » (#57,707), « émotivité » (#57,709), « égos » (#57,706). Parmi 1,805 lemmes en « É », « élégie » est au #57,708. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

élégie is uncommon French at frequency #57,708 among 1,805 “É” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \e.le.ʒi\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.

élégie has no tracked misspelling variants, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is élégie, spelled É-L-É-G-I-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Genre de poésie dont le sujet est triste ou tendre.
  2. 2
    Morceau d’inspiration poétique, souvent mélancolique.
  3. 3
    Personne dont l’allure, la physionomie, le caractère sont empreints de tristesse, de mélancolie, à l’image des personnages des élégies.
  4. 4
    Confidences échangées sur un mode plaintif.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Ces éclairs de bonheur à soi seul, entremêlés de méditations mélancoliques, […] rendirent ce jeune homme un spectacle d’autant plus touchant que sa physionomie et sa personne étaient en harmonie avec ce sentiment profond. Il n’y a rien de plus poétique qu’une élégie animée qui a des yeux, qui marche ; et qui soupire sans rimes.
  2. Le lendemain, comme j’étais occupé à composer une élégie, et que je mordais ma plume dans l’attente d’une rime, Chvabrine frappa sous ma fenêtre.

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 "élégie"?
"élégie" is spelled É-L-É-G-I-E. The IPA pronunciation is \e.le.ʒi\.
What does "élégie" mean?
As a noun, "élégie" means: Genre de poésie dont le sujet est triste ou tendre.
How do you pronounce "élégie"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "élégie" is \e.le.ʒi\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "élégie" come from?
"élégie" 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 "élégie", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list