ESB
\ø.ɛs.be\
The verdict
“ESB” is uncommon French (frequency #73,138 among 201,161 “E” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #73,138
- frequency rank, French
- 201,161
- “E” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Encéphalopathie spongiforme bovine.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ESB |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ø.ɛs.be\ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #73,138 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ESB” sits in French frequency
Rare enough to double-check
ESB is uncommon French at frequency #73,138 among 201,161 “E” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \ø.ɛs.be\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for ESB, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is ESB, spelled E-S-B.
Definition
- 1Encéphalopathie spongiforme bovine.
- 2Technique informatique intergicielle permettant à des applications hétérogènes de gérer leurs échanges en pseudo temps réel, selon des standards comme XML, de façon distribuée.
- 3Extra Special Bitter, bière très amère de tradition anglaise.
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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Using “ESB”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is E-S-B - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ø.ɛs.be\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Other uncommon French words near this rank
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.