fifre

\fifʁ\

/\fifʁ\/ noun

The verdict

“fifre” is uncommon French (frequency #62,277 among 3,276 “F” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#62,277
frequency rank, French
3,276
“F” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Sorte de petite flûte traversière d’un son aigu en usage dans certaines armées et accompagnée par le tambourin, pour les fêtes traditionnelles en Provence.

Corpus desk

Index FR-fifre · fifre · French

fifre · rank #62,277 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #62,277
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,276
  • PHOTO-FINISH fif

Nearest frequency peer: fif (-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 « fifre »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for fifre
PropertyValue
Headwordfifre
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\fifʁ\
Letters5
Frequency rank#62,277
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « fifre » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).fifretombe 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: « fif » (#62,276), « finisses » (#62,278), « feuillette » (#62,274). Parmi 3,276 lemmes en « F », « fifre » est au #62,277. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

fifre is uncommon French at frequency #62,277 among 3,276 “F” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \fifʁ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

fifre doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is fifre, spelled F-I-F-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Sorte de petite flûte traversière d’un son aigu en usage dans certaines armées et accompagnée par le tambourin, pour les fêtes traditionnelles en Provence.
  2. 2
    Personne qui joue du fifre.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Il tenait son long et léger tambourin pendu au bras gauche par une courroie, et de la main du même bras portait à ses lèvres un petit fifre, pendant que de sa main droite il tambourinait, l’air crâne, la jambe en avant.
  2. Il n’avait pas son pareil pour souffler dans le fifre et pour mener le bal.

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 "fifre"?
"fifre" is spelled F-I-F-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \fifʁ\.
What does "fifre" mean?
As a noun, "fifre" means: Sorte de petite flûte traversière d’un son aigu en usage dans certaines armées et accompagnée par le tambourin, pour les fêtes traditionnelles en Provence.
How do you pronounce "fifre"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "fifre" is \fifʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "fifre" come from?
"fifre" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "fifre", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list