encéphale
\ɑ̃.se.fal\
The verdict
“encéphale” is uncommon French (frequency #76,535 among 3,255 “E” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #76,535
- frequency rank, French
- 3,255
- “E” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Ensemble des centres du système nerveux central qui sont contenus dans la cavité du crâne.
Corpus desk
Index FR-encephale · encéphale · French
encéphale · rank #76,535 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #76,535
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,255
- PHOTO-FINISH encombrantes
Nearest frequency peer: encombrantes (-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 « encéphale »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- empress
empress
23,469 corpus weight
- emprisonnem…
emprisonnements
23,468 corpus weight
- encombrantes
encombrantes
23,467 corpus weight
- encéphale
encéphale
23,466 corpus weight
- endive
endive
23,465 corpus weight
- endocrinolo…
endocrinologue
23,464 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « encéphale » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | encéphale |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ɑ̃.se.fal\ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Frequency rank | #76,535 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « encéphale » en français
Rare enough to double-check
encéphale is uncommon French at frequency #76,535 among 3,255 “E” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ɑ̃.se.fal\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for encéphale, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct French form is encéphale, spelled E-N-C-É-P-H-A-L-E.
Definition
- 1Ensemble des centres du système nerveux central qui sont contenus dans la cavité du crâne.
- 2Tête.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how encéphale appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
L’importance des altérations pathologiques de l’encéphale a donné lieu à de vives discussions, et l’on est encore loin d’être d’accord aujourd’hui.
La lésion unilatérale d’un grand nombre de parties de l’encéphale peut déterminer chez le sujet qui en est affecté, des mouvements involontaires de rotation, mouvements qui varient avec le siège et la profondeur de l’altération.
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
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Similar French words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "encéphale", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 9 letters (nearest by frequency rank).