explain
\ɪkˈspleɪn\
The verdict
“explain” is uncommon French (frequency #83,859 among 3,255 “E” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #83,859
- frequency rank, French
- 3,255
- “E” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Expliquer.
Corpus desk
Index FR-explain · explain · French
explain · rank #83,859 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #83,859
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,255
- PHOTO-FINISH exhortations
Nearest frequency peer: exhortations (-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 « explain »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- Estée
Estée
16,148 corpus weight
- exactly
exactly
16,144 corpus weight
- exhortations
exhortations
16,143 corpus weight
- explain
explain
16,142 corpus weight
- fajitas
fajitas
16,140 corpus weight
- famélique
famélique
16,139 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « explain » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | explain |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \ɪkˈspleɪn\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #83,859 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « explain » en français
Rare enough to double-check
explain is uncommon French at frequency #83,859 among 3,255 “E” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \ɪkˈspleɪn\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for explain in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, 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 best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is explain, spelled E-X-P-L-A-I-N.
Definition
- 1Expliquer.
- 2Justifier.
Synonyms
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 "explain", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).