fraie

\fʁɛ\

/\fʁɛ\/ noun

The verdict

“fraie” is uncommon French (frequency #70,658 among 3,276 “F” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#70,658
frequency rank, French
3,276
“F” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Période du frai, époque où les poissons se reproduisent.

Corpus desk

Index FR-fraie · fraie · French

fraie · rank #70,658 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #70,658
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,276
  • PHOTO-FINISH Fortunat

Nearest frequency peer: Fortunat (-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 « fraie »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for fraie
PropertyValue
Headwordfraie
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\fʁɛ\
Letters5
Frequency rank#70,658
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « fraie » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).fraietombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Voisins rares de la même bande: « Fortunat » (#70,657), « frappants » (#70,659), « Friedland » (#70,660). Parmi 3,276 lemmes en « F », « fraie » est au #70,658. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

fraie is uncommon French at frequency #70,658 among 3,276 “F” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed \fʁɛ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Période du frai, époque où les poissons se reproduisent.".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for fraie, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No documented word history exists for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is fraie, spelled F-R-A-I-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Période du frai, époque où les poissons se reproduisent.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Les combinaisons de croisement entre salmones ne sont limitées que par les différences existant dans l'époque de la fraie.
  2. Les travaux sont généralement interdits d’octobre à avril, période de fraie et d’incubation des truites.

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

How do you spell "fraie"?
"fraie" is spelled F-R-A-I-E. The IPA pronunciation is \fʁɛ\.
What does "fraie" mean?
As a noun, "fraie" means: Période du frai, époque où les poissons se reproduisent.
How do you pronounce "fraie"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "fraie" is \fʁɛ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "fraie" come from?
"fraie" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 "fraie", 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