encensoir

\ɑ̃.sɑ̃.swaʁ\

/\ɑ̃.sɑ̃.swaʁ\/ noun

The verdict

“encensoir” is uncommon French (frequency #93,730 among 3,255 “E” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#93,730
frequency rank, French
3,255
“E” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Sorte de cassolette suspendue à de petites chaînes, dans laquelle on brûle de l’encens et dont on se sert pour encenser.

Corpus desk

Index FR-encensoir · encensoir · French

encensoir · rank #93,730 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #93,730
  • LEN-LONG 9 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,255
  • PHOTO-FINISH empennage

Nearest frequency peer: empennage (-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 « encensoir »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for encensoir
PropertyValue
Headwordencensoir
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ɑ̃.sɑ̃.swaʁ\
Letters9
Frequency rank#93,730
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « encensoir » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.encensoirtombe 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: « empennage » (#93,729), « enchevêtrés » (#93,731), « empanadas » (#93,728). Parmi 3,255 lemmes en « E », « encensoir » est au #93,730. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

encensoir is uncommon French at frequency #93,730 among 3,255 “E” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ɑ̃.sɑ̃.swaʁ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Sorte de cassolette suspendue à de petites chaînes, dans laquelle on brûle de l’encens et dont on se sert pour encenser.".

Zero misspellings are on record for encensoir in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is encensoir, spelled E-N-C-E-N-S-O-I-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Sorte de cassolette suspendue à de petites chaînes, dans laquelle on brûle de l’encens et dont on se sert pour encenser.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Je recueillais de loin quelques parfums de l’encensoir, et Dieu permettait que je glanasse l’épi du pauvre derrière sa riche moisson.
  2. Tous s’agenouillèrent. Il se fit un grand silence. Et les encensoirs, allant à pleine volée, glissaient sur leurs chaînettes.

Synonyms

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 "encensoir"?
"encensoir" is spelled E-N-C-E-N-S-O-I-R. The IPA pronunciation is \ɑ̃.sɑ̃.swaʁ\.
What does "encensoir" mean?
As a noun, "encensoir" means: Sorte de cassolette suspendue à de petites chaînes, dans laquelle on brûle de l’encens et dont on se sert pour encenser.
How do you pronounce "encensoir"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "encensoir" is \ɑ̃.sɑ̃.swaʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "encensoir" come from?
"encensoir" 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 "encensoir", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list