fray

verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“fray” is uncommon French (frequency #59,302 among 3,276 “F” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#59,302
frequency rank, French
3,276
“F” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - S’effilocher, s’user par frottement.

Corpus desk

Index FR-fray · fray · French

fray · rank #59,302 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #59,302
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,276
  • PHOTO-FINISH foulques

Nearest frequency peer: foulques (-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 « fray »

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

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for fray
PropertyValue
Headwordfray
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
Letters4
Frequency rank#59,302
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « fray » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).fraytombe 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: « foulques » (#59,301), « Freycinet » (#59,303), « fossil » (#59,300). Parmi 3,276 lemmes en « F », « fray » est au #59,302. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

fray is uncommon French at frequency #59,302 among 3,276 “F” headwords, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for fray, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

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 fray, spelled F-R-A-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    S’effilocher, s’user par frottement.
  2. 2
    Épuiser.
  3. 3
    Défrayer ; décharger des frais de nourriture, d’entretien, de voyage, etc.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. The halter was loose on her, and frayed at the edges. Perhaps she’d recently lost weight, or maybe she’d deliberately bought it overlarge. Whatever the reason, it showed quite a bit of her chest.
  2. The ribbon frayed at the cut end.

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 "fray"?
"fray" is spelled F-R-A-Y.
What does "fray" mean?
As a verb, "fray" means: S’effilocher, s’user par frottement.
What language does "fray" come from?
"fray" 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 "fray", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

frou#59,305hail#59,329Ifsi#59,362maja#59,419

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list