esquimau

\ɛs.ki.mo\

/\ɛs.ki.mo\/ adj

The verdict

“esquimau” is uncommon French (frequency #69,058 among 3,255 “E” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#69,058
frequency rank, French
3,255
“E” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Relatif au peuple habitant les terres arctiques du Groënland, du Canada, de l’Alaska et de la Sibérie ; à sa langue et sa culture.

Corpus desk

Index FR-esquimau · esquimau · French

esquimau · rank #69,058 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #69,058
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-5 5 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,255
  • PHOTO-FINISH eschatologique

Nearest frequency peer: eschatologique (-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 « esquimau »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for esquimau
PropertyValue
Headwordesquimau
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\ɛs.ki.mo\
Letters8
Frequency rank#69,058
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « esquimau » en français

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).esquimautombe 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: « eschatologique » (#69,057), « esquives » (#69,059), « escampette » (#69,056). Parmi 3,255 lemmes en « E », « esquimau » est au #69,058. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

esquimau is uncommon French at frequency #69,058 among 3,255 “E” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \ɛs.ki.mo\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Relatif au peuple habitant les terres arctiques du Groënland, du Canada, de l’Alaska et de la Sibérie ; à sa langue et sa culture.".

No misspelling variants are generated for esquimau in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is esquimau, spelled E-S-Q-U-I-M-A-U.

Definition

  1. 1
    Relatif au peuple habitant les terres arctiques du Groënland, du Canada, de l’Alaska et de la Sibérie ; à sa langue et sa culture.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. C’est l’histoire d’un bébé esquimau qui deviendra grand et chasseur comme ses ancêtres […]
  2. Le petit village esquimau de Shishmaref posé sur un îlot aux confins de l’Alaska s’enfonce dans la mer un peu plus chaque année, victime du réchauffement climatique, et doit déménager sur le continent, au risque de perdre son identité.

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 "esquimau"?
"esquimau" is spelled E-S-Q-U-I-M-A-U. The IPA pronunciation is \ɛs.ki.mo\.
What does "esquimau" mean?
As an adjective, "esquimau" means: Relatif au peuple habitant les terres arctiques du Groënland, du Canada, de l’Alaska et de la Sibérie ; à sa langue et sa culture.
How do you pronounce "esquimau"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "esquimau" is \ɛs.ki.mo\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "esquimau" come from?
"esquimau" 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 "esquimau", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list