fern
\fɛʁn\
The verdict
“fern” is uncommon French (frequency #60,015 among 3,276 “F” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #60,015
- frequency rank, French
- 3,276
- “F” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Lointain, qui est fort éloigné du lieu où l’on est ou dont on parle.
Corpus desk
Index FR-fern · fern · French
fern · rank #60,015 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #60,015
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,276
- PHOTO-FINISH fats
Nearest frequency peer: fats (-2 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 « fern »
Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court
- exégètes
exégètes
39,991 corpus weight
- falla
falla
39,990 corpus weight
- fasciner
fasciner
39,989 corpus weight
- fats
fats
39,988 corpus weight
- fern
fern
39,986 corpus weight
- Fersen
Fersen
39,984 corpus weight
What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « fern » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | fern |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | \fɛʁn\ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #60,015 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « fern » en français
Rare enough to double-check
fern is uncommon French at frequency #60,015 among 3,276 “F” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed \fɛʁn\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Zero misspellings are on record for fern in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, 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 explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is fern, spelled F-E-R-N.
Definition
- 1Lointain, qui est fort éloigné du lieu où l’on est ou dont on parle.
- 2Lointain, qui est fort éloigné dans le temps.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how fern appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
In einem fernen Land.
Balzac, der Knabe, hat das Lesen vielleicht gelernt an den Proklamationen, die stolz, schroff, mit fast römischem Pathos die fernen Siege erzählten,
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 "fern", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).